Yuko, known as "Mama", is only 25 years old. She ties her hair to look older and more credible in her role as a hostess bar owner in Ginza, a suburb of Tokyo. Despite her youth, she has been divorced for two years and has a baby girl, Asako, whom she has placed with her mother in the countryside. Regularly harassed by her ex-husband, she must also manage the excesses of her employees, the indelicacy of the customers, her attraction to Ken-Chan, her bartender, and financial problems at the dawn of a major economic crisis.