Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and finds himself without a job. He decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled 'Departures' thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency. He discovers that the job is actually for a 'Nokanshi' or 'encoffineer,' a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry...

Since the death of his wife, sake producer Nobuo Honma lives with his youngest son. Each day, he takes a walk in the winter snow. Nobuo's routine disrupted when he asks his oldest son to come to Hokkaido.

Inflicted with a deadly curse, a young warrior named Ashitaka sets out to the forest of the west in search of the cure that will save his life. Once there, he becomes inextricably entangled in a bitter battle that matches Lady Eboshi and a proud clan of humans against the forest's animal gods...who are led by the brave Princess Mononoke, a young woman raised by wolves!