Penance

Tragedy strikes when young Emili is shockingly murdered by a mysterious stranger. The other four girls present at the scene of the crime—Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuka—are unable to remember the killer’s face. The crime goes unsolved. Fifteen years later, Sae is paid a surprise visit on her wedding day.

Maki is now a relentlessly strict teacher at an elementary school and trains in self-defense techniques in her off-time to combat her overall sense of helplessness. When an attacker arrives at her school, Maki jumps into action to confront him, triggering a chain of unforeseen repercussions.

Akiko has withdrawn from society and lives a reclusive life at home. But things change when her brother Koji moves home from Tokyo with his wife and stepdaughter, Wakaba. As Akiko forges a close bond with her young niece, she notices signs of a strange relationship between the girl and Koji.

When Yuka was a child, her mother always favored Yuka’s sickly older sister Mayu. Today, Yuka is the successful proprietor of a flower shop, but she is still consumed by jealousy. When Mayu marries a kindly policeman named Keita, Yuka concocts a vengeful plan to seduce him.

Fifteen years since the murder of her daughter, Asako is still overtaken with grief and resentment. One day she receives a vital new clue as to the identity of Emili’s killer and sets out to find him. As she closes in on the truth, Asako finds herself in an unexpected location from her past.