An old man saved a crane and it came back to him disguised as a young girl. The crane worked hard at the loom, making beautiful cloth. She asked the old man and his wife never to watch her at work. However, curiosity got the better of the old man, and he peeped into the room to find the crane weaving and so his dream came to an end. The girl flew away as a crane, leaving the old man and his wife to realize that they had lost something important forever.
This three-page illustrated story is based on the famous folktale "The crane that married a man". Because the story is for children, the young man in the original story has been replaced with "an old couple". In this story, Tezuka Osamu tells us about the mystery of human inconsistencies, which includes gentleness in "saving a crane" as well as foolishness in "being unable to keep a single promise". Tezuka Osamu seems to have been more interested in the strangeness of human beings than in the fantasy world where cranes transform themselves into humans.