the virtues of patience

Suzuko Niré is almost 16 years old. She is a teenager like any other her age. Her father is the director of a branch of a pharmaceutical company, her mother is a ceramist and her brother is an automobile engineer. It’s mid-October. As the lily of the valley fades and the leaves turn red, Suzuko must decide what she will study at university. The story is banal except that Suzuko is in love with her brother Tôru, 27 years old. At least from her cousin, because Suzuko’s biological mother died shortly after giving birth and the father married the deceased’s sister. Sister who already had a son: Tôru.

In Japan, the law allows marriage between cousins. The fact remains that Tôru knows nothing about Suzuko’s feelings. And the teenager is not very talkative. But everything should soon change; Tôru, who went to work in an engineering company in Nagoya, must return home at the end of the week. And Suzuko finally plans to declare her love for him. So we are a few days away from the arrival of Tôru…