High school student Meiko Morita lives in the rural countryside of Akita Prefecture. Hoping to help her family financially, she applies to a prestigious all-girls school in Tokyo, Amamiya Girls Academy, which offers generous student allowances. To her surprise, she is accepted as a special transfer student and moves to the capital city full of expectations.

However, the dormitory Meiko arrives at is not a typical student housing facility. It is the Hedgehog, a manga cafe where she is expected to live and work as part of a volunteer program. The situation is complicated by a significant misunderstanding. Rie Amamiya, the academy director's daughter who runs the cafe, has confused Meiko with a popular newcomer manga artist who shares the same name. Unaware of this mistake, Meiko begins her new life sharing a cramped one-tatami mat booth with a colorful group of residents.

The main cast includes Rie Amamiya, an incredibly wealthy and good-natured otaku with a skewed sense of money who loves yuri manga. Marika Suzuki is a slothful video streamer who is on bad terms with her strict family and dislikes wearing pants due to temperature sensitivity. Neo Nakano is a diminutive but strong technology expert aiming to become a professional gamer, whose sweet appearance hides a more intense personality. Other characters include Michika Narumi, a first-year student who works at a cat cafe in the same building, and later a wandering eighteen-year-old history enthusiast named Magical Momorin Gōda.

The narrative arc begins with Meiko adjusting to the chaos of working in a manga cafe and living in an incredibly small space. Much of the comedy derives from her role as the straight woman reacting to the bizarre habits of the other residents, such as Marika's streaming antics or Rie's extravagant spending. A key early story point involves the secret that Meiko was only admitted due to her name being confused with a manga artist, which eventually comes to light. As the series progresses, the focus remains on the daily life and friendship of the group as they balance school, part-time jobs at the cafe, and their various hobbies like gaming, streaming, and reading manga.