Filmed in a documentary style, six patients in six wards of different ages and circumstances await death at a hospital in Japan. The sterile and dismal environment is contrasted against the emotional being of the patients, their visitors and relatives and the outside world, which they will never again survey.

When Koichi Hamanaka returns after his mysterious disappearance years earlier, journalist Asakura who befriended Hamanaka's wife during his absence, tries to piece together the reasons for his departure.