Kimie Nakaoka, a resilient Hiroshima native, anchors her family through World War II’s escalating turmoil. Alongside her anti-war husband Daikichi and their five children—Gen, Koji, Eiko, Shinji, and Akira—she withstands societal exclusion and deepening poverty, often forfeiting her own meals to shield the children from hunger. As air raids intensify, her pregnancy becomes a battle against malnutrition and relentless fear.

On August 6, 1945, the atomic blast buries Daikichi, Eiko, and Shinji beneath their home, leaving Kimie to claw free with Gen. Trauma-induced labor forces her to deliver daughter Tomoko amid the ruins, aided by her surviving son. Navigating a shattered city, she scavenges for food and shelter while cradling her fragile newborn.

Tomoko’s death from starvation fractures Kimie further, yet she opens her arms to Ryuta, an orphan mirroring Shinji’s features. The makeshift family endures evictions, radiation-scarred survivors, and her own declining health, her body weakening under invisible poison. She rejects aid from the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, distrust curdling into defiance as institutions fail her again.

Her quiet fortitude binds the remnants of her family, even as losses multiply. In one unguarded moment, she rails against Japan’s prolonged surrender, anguish raw: "Why delay peace while children starve?" Radiation sickness finally claims her, but not before imprinting Gen with her unyielding resolve.

Each choice—from shared hunger to sheltering a stranger’s child—etches the brutal calculus of survival, her legacy a testament to war’s toll on those who outlive its flames.