Fireflies and Ruins

Spring 1945, on the eve of the great air raid on Tokyo. Five-year-old Qiu Yingying lives with her parents in a small wooden house in Tokyo. Her father is a soldier, and her mother is an ordinary housewife. The night before the air raid, her father rushes home and arranges for her and her mother to take refuge in the countryside of Chiba, while he stays behind to carry out his "mission." Qiu Yingying follows her mother to a village in Chiba, where they lodge with a poor farming family. Before long, they receive news of her father's death. He is sent home as a small handful of ashes. Her mother grows quiet and withdrawn, and eventually dies that summer from heatstroke and exhaustion. Before she dies, she tells Qiu Yingying, "You have to live..." Just five years old, Qiu Yingying is left an orphan. With no choice but to depend on others, she struggles to survive in the unfamiliar countryside. With memories of her parents, the care of her mute uncle, and a faint hope in her heart that never goes out, she keeps on living, one day at a time.