Nikuko-chan’s loving personality has attracted nothing but bad men in her life and she has been fooled by them time and time again. Compared to her outrageously loud and excitable mother who has the innocence of a child, Kikuko is a mature fifth grader who has her head on straight. Whenever Nikuko-chan’s latest relationship comes to an end, the two of them move to a different town as if they were nomads. Most recently, they have drifted to a northern fishing port town. Feeling at a loss and hungry, Nikuko-chan and Kikuko go to a barbecue restaurant at the fishing port called Uogashi to fill their bellies. The owner of the restaurant, Sassan, a widower, was intending to close it when Nikuko-chan appeared before him. He thinks she is “a goddess of meat,” and offers her employment on the condition that she never gets an upset stomach. He lets Nikuko-chan and Kikuko take up residence in the fishing boat he owns at the port, and their new life begins!

Kikuko enrolls at the local elementary school. She is good at sports, picks up the local dialect quickly, and her friends say that she’s cute. However, she starts to feel a little embarrassed about her mother, who is rumored to be a Russian Matryoshka doll and always says the first thing that pops into her head in an Osakan dialect even though she’s not from Osaka.

Meanwhile, Kikuko gets caught in annoying quarrels between different girl groups at school, which are all too common for girls her age. She also meets an eccentric boy named Ninomiya, and little by little as she grows up, she starts to really like the fishing port town. But it’s only a matter of time before Nikuko-chan’s next failed relationship, and then they’ll have to start over again in a new town. As that insecurity crosses their minds, Kikuko and Nikuko-chan’s big secret is revealed.