SYNOPSIS:

Ikumi and Sunqu, a pair of birds, have long tried to become parents. After repeated empty eggs, their hope begins to wear thin, yet their desire for a child remains intact. One day, while out searching for food, a fragment of wood falls into their nest. Shaped by chance, the object takes on the silhouette of a hatchling. When they return, the couple believes that, at last, their child has been born. From that moment on, Ikumi clings to motherhood with unwavering tenderness. Though the little one does not respond, does not fly, and does not react to her teachings, she interprets every silence as part of its uniqueness. Sunqu, more rational, senses that something is amiss, yet his love for Ikumi leads him to sustain the illusion. As the lessons grow more demanding, the final challenge arrives: learning to fly. Driven by innocence and the need to believe, Ikumi pushes her wooden chick from the top of a tree. The fall shatters it into pieces, revealing the inevitable truth. Standing before the scattered fragments, Ikumi confronts not only the loss, but the grief she had postponed from the very beginning.