Forced out of his research group after conflicts with his colleagues, Ogawa Takanobu takes up an offer to teach at a girls' high school in Nara. When taking roll call on the first day one of his students, Hotta Ito, sneaks into class late, claiming a bogus excuse--that she got a ticket after trying to park her deer in front of the train station. He makes immediate enemies with Hotta when he tells his superiors about her tardiness and attitude. In the following days, he begins to notice something unusual about Hotta, but he can't seem to put his finger on it.
With an odd group of colleagues who live together with him, Ogawa slowly accustoms to life in slow-paced Nara, where there seem to be as many deer as people. Walking through Nara Park one day, he begins to befriend the local deer population, feeding them rice wafers. After being confronted by a talking deer who commandeers him to prevent the destruction of Japan, he fails in his first mission and the talking deer exacts punishment--looking into the mirror the next day, he discovers he has turned into a deer from the shoulders up. Ogawa slowly begins to piece the puzzle together: the talking deer, the mysterious student, and a recent series of earthquakes that could spell doom for Japan...