Sent from Tokyo to the mountain village of Hinamizawa, the young police investigator Mamoru Akasaka is looking into the kidnapping of a government official's grandson. With little to do while the case stalls, he falls into conversation with Rika Furude, the quiet shrine maiden of the village, who tells him to leave before the summer festival. This manga adapts the fourth question arc of Higurashi When They Cry and is set five years before the other arcs.