Saki Miyanaga enters high school carrying a deep resentment for mahjong, a game she was forced to play at home where winning or losing always led to punishment from her family. This difficult childhood led her to develop an unusual playing style focused on achieving a perfect plus-minus zero score, neither winning nor losing significantly, as a form of self-protection. Despite her reluctance, an old friend drags her to the small mahjong club at Kiyosumi High School, where the club president quickly recognizes that Saki’s ability to maintain a zero score is actually a remarkable skill that suggests hidden talent.

The Kiyosumi club becomes Saki’s unexpected new home. The team includes Nodoka Haramura, the former national junior high champion who plays with cold, analytical precision and carries a stuffed penguin for comfort, alongside the energetic Yuki Kataoka and the strategic club president Hisa Takei. Initially, Saki only wants to avoid standing out, but through her matches with Nodoka and the others, she gradually discovers that mahjong can actually be enjoyable when played with friends. For the first time, she allows herself to want to win, making a promise with Nodoka to aim for the national championships together.

The live-action series follows the team through the intense prefectural qualifiers, where they face powerful rival schools with their own exceptional players. The tournament arc builds toward a climactic finals match against Ryuumonbuchi Private School, whose captain, Koromo Amae, possesses overwhelming luck-based abilities that seem impossible to defeat. Saki must confront not only this formidable opponent but also her own suppressed feelings about mahjong and the sister she left behind. The narrative weaves together the tactical depth of competitive mahjong with the emotional growth of its characters, as each match reveals new layers of strategy, friendship, and personal history.

The live-action television series aired on TBS in Japan for four episodes beginning December 4, 2016, and was followed by a film adaptation that premiered on February 3, 2017.