LOGLINE

 

A Drama about a Japanese woman who moves to California to work as an interpreter, then her controlling ex-fiancée fires her, new husband and mother die, and due to Covid, cannot return to Japan pushing her further into despair and isolation. When all seems lost, a stranger appears who gives her a path to restoration through the replanting of a chrysanthemum garden.

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SYNOPSIS

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Lovely and ambitious Misaki moves to the Silicon Valley from Kyoto, Japan, leaving behind her ailing step mother and father, to pursue her dream of working as an interpreter and to see the world. Her mother is happy, and sad, because Misaki will be gone during the time they plant their annual chrysanthemum garden.

 

All is going well in her new job until her finance Shota, a childhood friend who surprises her with a marriage proposal before she leaves, begins to browbeat her for not staying in touch.

 

Shota’s jealousy, controlling behavior and reluctance to marry her once he learns she cannot have children, cause Misaki to cast him aside in favor of Jack. Misaki and Jack both slowly fall in love over the course of a few months as Covid begins its spread throughout the world.

 

Secretly Shota has bought the company Misaki works for and is spying on her. When Shota learns she has thrown away the engagement ring and is dating Jack, he fires her and then cancels the lease on her apartment.

 

However, Jack steps in as her savior when he proposes. They decide to get married before Covid closes everything down arranging it so Misaki’s parents can attend the service via video call. Her mother even sends her the wedding dress she wore and Misaki is quite beautiful and very content.

 

Then the night before the wedding, Misaki’s mother passes away due to a lung infection, most likely caused by Covid. Yet, the ceremony takes place at the urging of her father saying it would be her mother’s wish.

 

After the gorgeous ceremony, Jack takes Misaki to their new home, as a wedding gift from him, and in this moment she finds some serenity and happiness. That night they make love, nevertheless, before their life together can grow, Jack dies a week later, leaving Misaki alone to face her grief causing tremendous guilt and depression.

 

Misaki begins to drink as the torment and loneliness envelope her soul. Then, out of nowhere, a nursery owner in his 80s, Yomo, from Japan and a survivor of the Tokyo fire bombings, appears at her door step with a buttonwood Jack ordered. Unknowing to Misaki, Jack hired Yomo to help create the Chrysanthemum garden in the front yard as a living memorial to Misaki’s mother.

 

However, as Misaki falls further into a depression, Yomo checks in on her and their relationship slowly takes on meaning as Yomo’s story of survival and his work as gardener in the Imperial Gardens restoring the chrysanthemums after the destruction, plus his gentle nudging to cast out the dead Chrysanthemums in her garden offers her some hope.

 

Nonetheless, before she can recover, forlorn Misaki faces more unforeseen obstacles, life changing complications and an unexpected surprise that pushes her further into despair including learning she is pregnant, even though she was told this could never happen, plus the impending foreclosure of her home.

 

When all seems lost as Misaki contemplates an abortion and a homeless life in a strange land, through Yomo’s patience, wisdom and kindness, Misaki discovers the strength to confront her sorrow, overcome her crisis and unearth hope as she replants the chrysanthemum garden.

 

As Misaki and Yomo admire the colorful, stout and beautiful chrysanthemums, they plant the Buttonwood together and she embraces the child she is carrying and her new job at the nursery working with Yomo.