Failing to secure proper employment, former manga artist Sukezou Sukegawa has been reduced to operating a doomed business venture of his own design: selling stones on the very riverside where he collects them. Refusing to sacrifice his artistic integrity and re-enter the manga industry, and with numerous failed schemes under his belt, Sukezou firmly entrenches himself in a position of destitution. Despite having a family to care for—including his breadwinner wife, whose opinion of him is ever-souring—he stubbornly refuses to abandon his stone trade. With one misadventure after another, Sukezou attempts to make a profit in a profitless situation, firmly believing that success is simply a stone waiting to be turned.