Summer has arrived in the Japanese countryside. Hiroo, a mischievous 10-year-old boy, is playing with his mother when an army jeep pulls up in a cloud of dust. An officer and his sidekick emerge. They are there to enlist the child and turn him into a soldier in the service of the Emperor. Against all odds, Hiroo refuses and runs away. The two soldiers give chase, but Hiroo's mother intervenes, risking her life.