The tenants are shocked when they begin seeing a mystery man leaving Maison Ikkoku. Soon enough they realize that he is none other than Kentaro's father, Mr. Ichinose! After losing his job, Mr. Ichinose begins having trouble finding a new one, meanwhile Kentaro has a parent/child sports meet at his elementary school, but is too embarassed to ask his overweight, alcoholic mother, and recently unemployed father to come, so instead he asks Godai and Kyoko to come as his sister and her husband. Godai is all to happy to accept, but Kyoko feels guilty. Yotsuya finally tells Mr. Ichinose what Kentaro has planned, and the Ichinose's decide to not only compete, but win the three-legged race.

The Ikkoku residents decide to visit a hotsprings and Mitaka comes along. The trip starts off badly for Godai as he's forced to carry everyones bags. When they finally get to the hotsprings Godai begins to relax a little until Yotsuya attempts to find a way to peep at Kyoko, Akemi and Mrs. Ichinose on the other side. Godai and Mitaka try and stop him, but Godai gets stuck between the dividing wall and almost drowns. The night gets worse when they learn that Ichinose and Yotsuya spent all the money on booze instead of food. Everyone gets wasted and passes out, but Godai awakens in the middle of the night to find himself face to face with a sleeping Kyoko!

Kyoko finds out that her mother has been very sick lately and is unable to take care of her father, prompting her to go home and help out for two or three days. Godai gets worried that it could be another plot to trick Kyoko into quitting at Maison Ikkoku, but Mrs. Ichinose reassures him that Kyoko is too smart for that. Godai doesn't think much of it for the next few days, but after the alotted time passes he begins to think something may have happened. Trying to shake off his feelings of worry, Godai takes Soichiro for a walk and meets Mr. Ichinose, who is on his way home from work. Being the kind man he is, Mr. Ichinose invites Godai to have dinner with him and the two begin talking. Ichinose instantly guesses that Godai was walking around, hoping to run into Kyoko. He mentions to Godai that he reminds him of himself when he was younger and proceeds to tell him about a woman he used to be infatuated with at his first job out of college. She was a ""jewel in a dunghill"" he says, and h

As Kyoko returns home from walking Soichiro, the phone begins to ring. She rushes inside to answer it and learns that a new tenant will be arriving the next day. But when she asks for details, the voice on the other end hangs up abruptly. Kyoko goes to work cleaning the floors of Room 3 when Mrs. Ichinose asks if they're getting a new arrival. When Kyoko tells her the news she becomes very excited and asks Godai to go to the store and buy some party supplies while she calls Akemi and gets the party set up. That night, it begins to rain, and the mysterious guests luggage arrives, but he never shows up. The next day a kind older-looking man shows up on the front porch and says that he is the new tenant, Zenzaburo Mitsukoshi. Everyone seems to take to him instantly, and that night during the party Kyoko notices that his yukata doesn't fit him right. Yotsuya jokingly asks if that's because his dead wife made it and he only wears it to remember her. When Mitsukoshi says yes, Yotsuya actuall