In the summer of 1983, Keiichi Maebara relocates to the remote mountain village of Hinamizawa, where he quickly bonds with a tight-knit group of schoolgirls: the cheerful and curious Rena Ryugu, the boisterous club leader Mion Sonozaki, the quiet and mystical Rika Furude, and the spirited but troubled Satoko Hojo. Life seems idyllic, filled with playful club activities and lazy afternoons. However, beneath the village's quaint exterior lies a history soaked in blood. Keiichi learns of the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration dedicated to the local deity Oyashiro, and of a series of gruesome murders and mysterious disappearances that have occurred on the festival night each year for the past four years—events the locals whisper are the work of Oyashiro's curse.

As Keiichi presses his friends for answers, their evasiveness and subtle changes in behavior fuel his growing paranoia. The story does not unfold in a linear fashion but instead through a series of narrative arcs that retell the same fateful month of June 1983 from different perspectives, each time ending in tragedy. In one arc, Keiichi's suspicion drives him to violence against the friends he no longer trusts. In another, Mion's hidden identity as the heir to the powerful Sonozaki family leads to a bloody confrontation. In yet another, Satoko becomes the victim of a violent uncle, while Rika, seemingly just a whimsical girl, desperately tries to steer events toward a different outcome. Each arc reveals new pieces of the puzzle, showing that the characters' fates are intertwined not only with the village's dark secrets but also with a deeper, supernatural cycle of cause and effect.

The central conflict revolves around Rika Furude, who is aware that she has been trapped in a repeating loop of time, doomed to witness her friends die or become murderers on the night of the festival no matter what she does. The first season presents the question arcs, immersing the viewer in the confusion, paranoia, and horror experienced by different characters, each arc ending in catastrophe. The second season, Higurashi: When They Cry Kai, provides the answer arcs, shifting focus to the true masterminds behind the tragedy—including the ruthless researcher Miyo Takano and her conspiracy to exploit the village—and charting Rika's final, desperate struggle alongside her friends to break the curse, uncover the truth, and finally escape the endless summer.