Mukogishi is a work of children's literature about Kazuma, who transfers to a public junior high school after failing to keep up at an elite school, and Itsuki, who lives with her family on public assistance. Beginning from mutual incomprehension, the novel examines poverty and inequality from the perspective of junior high school students and searches for ways to face them.

As each learns the pain of someone they thought was on the far shore, their worlds begin to change.