Initially taken in by a distant aunt, the siblings soon find themselves unwelcome burdens in a time of extreme rationing. Seita, proud and desperate to maintain their dignity, decides to leave the hostile environment and move into an abandoned bomb shelter. The film chronicles their desperate struggle to survive on their own, initially finding joy in the temporary escape of fireflies and a mother’s candy tin, but eventually succumbing to the slow, inevitable tragedy of starvation and neglect.
: In June 1945, U.S. B-29 bombers leveled much of Kobe with incendiary canisters, a raid that killed over 8,000 people and destroyed the children's home and mother. Grave of the Fireflies-Hotaru no haka