Nine-year-old Mieko lives with her father, mother, grandmother, stepsister and stepbrother in the hotel Hibiscus, their house with one guest room. On the way to school, she saves a teenager, Notojima, who has fainted in the street. Her family puts him in the guest room and takes care of him as if he were a member of the family. When her mother and stepsister go to America to meet her sister’s father, Mieko is left with her hands full.