The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.

A mysterious man enters a restaurant and pays for his dinner with a paper crane that magically comes alive and dances.

"As this wordless story opens, a crane lays an egg and contentedly sits on it. But when a gust of wind from a sudden storm blows the egg from the nest, the heartbroken crane flies away. And then, from high overhead, the bird spots something. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be an egg. And since it seems to be all alone, the crane takes it back to the nest and incubates it. When sounds start coming from the egg and it's time to hatch, what emerges,...

A mother crane celebrates her little one's loveliness and draws other animal species into the circle of love.

Illustrations and simple text show the parallels between a pair of sandhill cranes building a nest and a construction crane being used to build a cabin for a family.