Two men spend eleven episodes arguing about whether a word means what they think it means, and by the end you're crying about the spaces between people that language can never quite fill. The show moves at the speed of actual work, actual thought, actual life, which turns out to be the only speed that matters when you're watching someone learn to speak to another person. A show about making a dictionary becomes a show about the small, permanent ways we change each other, and it never needs to raise its voice to break you.

Majime is terrible at talking to people. He struggles to read the mood in a room, and his social skills are poor. But when veteran editor Araki, nearing retirement, goes looking for a successor in the dictionary department at Genbu Shobou, he sees something in this awkward salesman: a real love of words and a careful, patient nature. Paired with Masashi, a sociable coworker who is his opposite, Majime joins the dictionary team, which others in the company regard as a money drain. Together they work on The Great Passage, a medium-sized Japanese dictionary, work that calls for patience, time and dedication. Unsure at first whether he belongs, Majime relies on his perseverance and his attachment to words as he grows into the job. The result is a quiet drama about work, language and the bonds that form among coworkers, with a gentle thread of romance.