The story opens up with three friends living in Aomori, the prefecture located on the northern most point of the main island of Japan. In 1996, the three are in eighth grade, their last year of middle school, and they are fascinated by the Hokkaido Tower visible across the Tsugaru Strait to the north. In the meantime, the two boys have found a crashed plane, naming it the Bella Ciela. The three teenagers promise to one day fly to Hokkaido to visit the Tower.