Haru Kaido travels to Canada to spend his summer vacation with his stern, strong-willed mother Haruko's woods home, where she deceives her son into believing she is "on the approach of death" in order to burden him with the obligation of caring for her recently acquired "puppy." In reality, that "puppy" is Ren, a little, rash, anti-social little kid who doesn't trust anyone and prefers to hang out with Haruko's dogs. Haruko gives Haru till the end of the summer to "civilize" Ren. As the young man tries everything he can to help Ren, their connection develops progressively; to the point that, after Haru graduated from high school, he planned on taking Ren to Japan to live with him.