Suwa Daisuke is a bored high school student living with his widowed mother in a small Japanese community. A player and ladies man, his ambition is to leave the small town he grew up in and move to the city like his older sister, Izumi. During class one day, while discussing with a friend which girls in the class he would date, he says that he would "pass" on only one: Aikawa Hinako, a quiet, fragile-looking but beautiful girl who has an extreme fear of men, even including her male teachers.
Working after school in his mother's restaurant, Daisuke stops in an abandoned church while making a delivery. Having made up a tall tale of a murdered bride's vengeful and murderous ghost who "chases you around with a cake knife", the entire town's population, except him, stays away from it, much to his amusement. Stopping inside to rest, he hears someone coming and conceals himself in the nearby confessional booth. Surprised to see Hinako (who, as a newcomer to the town hasn't heard the stories) entering the church, he remains in the confessional and pretends to be a priest to avoid an awkward moment. He tells her that mass has ended and asks her to leave unless she has come to confess, hoping she will leave. He is startled when, instead of leaving, Hinako asks him if he will hear her confession. Daisuke, believing it will be a mere triviality, agrees. She goes on to tell a story that will bind him to her forever.
While in junior high, Hinako was abused and raped by her stepfather, becoming pregnant. Her mother discovers the pregnancy, and does not believe Hinako's claims that her mother's new partner is the father. Hinako is forced to abort the pregnancy because the baby has already died inside of her. The abuse continued. Hinako fell pregnant again but this time the evidence of abuse is spotted by the doctors and her mother finally believes her terrible situation, throwing the stepfather out. The doctors tell Hinako that if she has another abortion, she might lose the ability to bear children completely. Hinako instead has to give birth to the child and put it up for adoption.
A year before the story starts, she gives birth to a boy. Hinako does not even see her child before he was taken away to be adopted, but now wonders if she should at least celebrate his birthday. She comes to the church to ask God if she should. With an emotional Hinako on the verge of breaking down in tears, a desperate Daisuke tells her, "You have the support of God". Thanking him, she leaves.
The next day, Daisuke cannot initially believe what he has heard, suspecting that Hinako invented the whole affair to make herself out to be some sort of tragic heroine. As he follows her home after school in order to confirm whether her story was true or not, Hinako stops to look at a woman and her baby in a carriage. Suddenly the brakes slip and the carriage starts to roll down the hill. Hinako runs instantly forward to save the child and Daisuke instinctively jumps in front of Hinako to protect her. Both carriage and baby are saved, but not before hitting Daisuke in the forehead and giving him a cut, throwing him to the ground with Hinako. In the process, Hinako's skirt gets hitched up and Daisuke sees a Caesarean scar on her stomach, recognizing it as the same as he saw on his mother's stomach as a child.
Hinako's story proven true, Daisuke is shocked, but when he walks her home from the hospital (after having his cut treated) she cheerfully smiles at him when she recognizes the song he starts singing to himself, making his heart jump. Daisuke resolves to help Hinako in any way he can, but finds himself unable to get her out of his mind.
