Natsuko Hirose rides high after her directorial debut becomes a cultural phenomenon, establishing her as animation's newest wunderkind. But success brings unexpected pressure. Her sophomore project demands something she's never experienced: romance. She is set to direct a romantic comedy film about first love, yet having never fallen for anyone, she cannot work out the storyboards, and production grinds to a halt. After collapsing from food poisoning, she wakes in a strange land and is chased by a monster known as a Void, only to be rescued by members of the Nine Soldiers. She soon realizes she is inside A Tale of Perishing, the movie she adored as a child. When her animation peg bar glows, her drawings take physical form, and she uses this power and her knowledge of the film to fight the Voids, alter the story's tragic course and search for a way home.