Rudolf is a pampered housecat who lives with a young girl named Rie and her family. When he tries to follow Rie on an errand, he ends up in the back of a truck that carries him far from home and everything familiar. There he meets Ippaiattena, a stray cat who teaches him how to survive. Ippaiattena also passes on his greatest skill, reading and writing Japanese, which lets Rudolf make sense of the world in a way few animals can. With this new knowledge, Rudolf searches for a way across Japan and back to his loving family. The 2016 film is an adventure comedy adapted from Hiroshi Saitō's 1986 children's book.