该剧根据芥川龙之介的《上海游记》改编。影片讲述100多年前，作为大阪每日新闻记者的芥川龙之介来到上海的所见所闻。

Oei, later known as Katsushika Oi, was born the third daughter of Edo’s talented painter Katsushika Hokusai and his second wife Koto. Although Oei became the wife of a town painter for a time, her love of the paintbrush more than her husband spelt disaster and she comes back home to Hokusai from the family she had married into. This is how Oei starts to help her father out in his painting of the “insurmountable high wall”. Meanwhile, Oei can only talk to the painter Ikeda Zenjiro, who is her father’s student, about her pain and worries. Zenjiro has taken Edo by storm as Keisai Eisen, the master of ukiyo-e portraying beautiful women. He visits regularly because he admires Hokusai and secretly likes Oei although their relationship is like childhood friends. Oei respects her father whose paintings fascinated her and continues to work as a painter who supports him behind the scenes. When Hokusai’s masterpiece Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji was completed, she was also by his side.

匆忙浮躁的都市中，四个与音乐相关的男男女女看似偶然般地邂逅了，他们分别是第一小提琴手卷真纪（松隆子 饰）、大提琴手世吹雀（满岛光 饰）、中提琴手家森谕高（高桥一生 饰）以及第二提琴手别府司（松田龙平 饰）。仿佛是对音乐的共同志向，他们组建了名为“甜甜圈洞”的四重奏乐队，暂时落脚于别府家位于轻井泽的别墅，过起了与世隔绝的人生。然而四个人终究无法超脱世俗存在，除了最基本的吃饭问题，每个人似乎都被各自的秘密所牵扯纠缠。其中雀与真纪“邂逅”的原因，恰恰正是因为真纪丈夫的不辞而别。
雪花飘落，寒风萧瑟，四重奏的悠扬旋律荡涤且治愈着他们每一个人的心……

厌烦了家乡一成不变的生活，24年前，对大都市东京满怀憧憬的天野春子（小泉今日子 饰）在北三陆电车开通首日离家出走。此去经年，早已成家但生活并不舒心的春子接到母亲病危的短信，于是带着女儿秋（能年玲奈 饰）返回家乡。如之前所料，这一切不过是好友大向大吉（杉本哲太 饰）的骗局，其目的是希望春子能够接替母亲夏（宫本信子 饰），继承当地有着悠久历史且即将消亡的海女职业。存有深深芥蒂的母女俩针锋相对，争执不断；而从未与外婆谋面的秋却深深为碧海蓝天以及海女所吸引。经过数日盘桓，被东京压抑的空气逼迫得喘不上气来的秋作出人生中重要的决定，那就是留下来成为一名海女。
全新的天地与道路，可爱的女孩对血缘和命运的回归，寻找发自心底的快乐……