"Why do fireflies die so young?" It is post-war Japan, just weeks before the American occupation. In the city of Kobe, a boy lies dying in the train station. Beside his body lies a small candy container. A janitor, unsure what to make of its ashy contents, pitches it into the night. As fireflies float softly around it, the ghostly images of the boy and his little sister appear…

Flashback to a short time earlier. Orphaned and homeless from a fire-bomb attack on their city, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister, Setsuko, set out to survive in the face of a society that is no longer able to protect them. Forced to live in an abandoned bomb shelter in the Japanese countryside, they slowly come to realize that they can never escape the hardships of war, or even find enough food to survive…

Awarded First Prize as Best Animated Feature at the 1994 Chicago International Children's Film Festival.