Kobato Hanato is a cheerful, clumsy girl bound by a contract: to reach the place she longs to go, she has to fill a small bottle with the mended pieces of people's wounded hearts, which take the form of konpeito candies. Guiding and scolding her is Ioryogi, a gruff spirit stuck in the body of a blue plush dog. As Kobato wanders the city helping strangers, she stumbles into a struggling nursery school and the people who keep it running.