Hisako, an elderly painter residing in the rural seaside town where Anna temporarily stays, spends her days sketching the mist-laden marshes and the enigmatic abandoned mansion nearby. Keenly observant, she notices an uncanny resemblance between Anna’s drawings of a spectral girl named Marnie and the forgotten history tied to the decaying estate. With quiet intuition, Hisako pieces together the threads of Marnie’s past, recounting her tragic upbringing under indifferent parents, her fleeting happiness with husband Kazuhiko, the heartbreak of his sudden death, and the subsequent estrangement from her daughter Emily. She discloses how Marnie’s efforts to nurture her granddaughter Anna ended abruptly with her own passing, leaving the child orphaned and adrift. Through patient, measured conversations, Hisako guides Anna toward understanding these buried connections, weaving Marnie’s sorrows into a tapestry that spans generations. Her insights allow Anna to reframe her ghostly encounters with Marnie not as mere visions, but as echoes of a shared lineage. By illuminating the interplay between Anna’s sketches, the mansion’s secrets, and the family’s fractured history, Hisako becomes an anchor for the girl’s turbulent emotions. Her words gently steer Anna toward reconciling her sense of abandonment with the enduring, if imperfect, love of her adoptive family, ultimately helping her forge a renewed sense of belonging.