A gemstone named the Mermaid's Scale appears in a secret, underground auction, and Lupin is coerced by the queen of the underworld into stealing the rock for her. Lupin however quickly discovers not only that the stone is a forgery, but that the real Mermaid's Scale is part of an unsolved riddle involving the mysterious girl Misa that leads to transcending mortality.
Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.
It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.