In 1958 postwar Tokyo, the residents of a humble Third Street neighbourhood struggle, dream, and grow together as rapid modernisation transforms their lives beneath the shadow of the newly rising Tokyo Tower.

Onodera Yuriko sets off for Sweden where her husband, Major General Onodera Makoto, is stationed as a military attache in Stockholm during World War II. Called the "god of intelligence", Makoto is an intelligence officer of the Russian service of the Japanese Army General Staff. Fluent in Russian and German and trusted by the spies of many countries because of his integrity, his office would eventually become the most important Japanese intelligence post in Europe. From the day of her arrival in Stockholm, Yuriko helps her husband's intelligence activities. She encrypts the highly classified information obtained by Makoto and sends it in coded telegrams to the General Staff Headquarters in Japan every day. Husband and wife have jointly undertaken this intelligence work for confidentiality.

Searching for escape in Tokyo's back alleys, a haunted English teacher explores love and lust with a dashing Yakuza, as their tumultuous affair takes her on a journey through the city's dive bars and three-hour love hotels.