Scotty James is a recent graduate with an Arts degree who has a dream of one day writing his own manga. When he realizes that there are no jobs available for someone with an art degree, he does the next best thing, and decides to spend a summer teaching English in Japan. During his time there, he comes out to his western colleagues and falls in love with one of his students, Masashige, who also has dreams of one day writing his own manga.

Scotty tells himself that, despite what other Western teachers might have done in their romantic flings with their students, he intends to take things slow with Masashige. Despite his own misgivings about being romantically involved with a student, his romance with Masashige is intense but brief, an experience he later describes as “a summer fling.”

However, things take a turn when Masashige shows Scotty the manga that he has been working on, and intends to use for his application to art school in Chicago. In the process, Scotty is reminded of his own dreams and his failure to produce a single page for his own manga. As the summer program comes to a close, Scotty again is reminded of his own failures and wonders how best to end his relationship with Masashige, while realizing that Masashige’s desire for him is also a desire for a Western partner. Scotty ends his short journey the same way it began—without a single thing drawn—but decides to take with him Masashige’s manga, so he may pawn it off as his own work.