On his way to school, Konoha Inoue sees his friend and fellow member of the literature club Tohko Amano, but decides to not call out to her after she starts searching through a trash bin. Tohko finds a bird house in the bin and takes it to school. After school, Tohko gives Konoha 50 minutes to write a short story, which she will later eat as a snack, with three topics: a bamboo boat, a love letter, and pole vaulting. As he starts writing, Tohko describes the novella First Love by Ivan Turgenev that she is currently reading and consuming. When time is up, Konoha has to rush the ending of his story and Tohko starts to read and eat it. Initially, she enjoys the story and its taste, akin to melon soda, but the story quickly turns sour and despite the taste now being of Tabasco sauce, finishes eating the story.

As first year student Konoha Inoue is about to leave school, he presences a girl savor a page from the book she is reading. She introduces herself as second year Tōko Amano, the literature girl, and asks him to join the Literature Club so that he doesn't expose her secret. After almost two years of being the sole two members of the club, a strange message arrives. A piece of paper with a drawing that resembles a sketch found on the corner of a poem written by famous Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa. Further investigation leads them not only to Inoue's past, but to the reason for why he has given up on writing novels for the rest of his life.