(The screen says "the shape of voice".)

Our boy is clearing out his life. He quits his job, sells his collection (of something,) and empties his bank account to leave an envelope full of money next to a sleeping person.

He's marking the days off the calendar.

The credits play over The Who's My Generation, as we flash back to our boy in sixth grade.

Our boy, Shoya Ishida, is bored in class when a new transfer student, Shoko Nishimiya, appears.

Shoko introduces herself by writing. She can't hear.

Shoko speaks like a deaf person: she can't hear herself, so her voice is monotone and her pronunciation is off.

Ishida makes it his personal quest to mock her.

Her attempts at friendship are rebuffed and he begins a campaign of harassment.

This escalates into the destruction of her hearing aids, and the administration is called in. Ishida's coconspirators sell him out.

Ishida's mother pays Shoko's mother for the hearing aids, and (it seems) takes physical punishment as well.

Ishida becomes the target in class.

Things escalate when he catches Shoko cleaning his desk. (Removing some nasty remark.) They get in a fight.

Shoko transfers to another school.

Jump forward to the present.

Ishida has a chance (or maybe not chance) encounter with Shoko outside his sign language class. He wants to return her communication notebook, which he's held on to all this time.

He's attempted suicide at least once. His mother, who he was paying back at the opening, burns the money. She doesn't want a suicide payment.

He went to see Shoko as his final act, or so he thought. But he didn't actually jump.

He tries to see her again, but is rebuffed by one of her friends.

He accidentally rescues a classmate, Tomohiro Nagatsuka, who becomes his friend. This is the first friendly contact he's had in years.

But why are the friends? What right does he have to a friend?

Nagatsuka responds: there's no qualification; friendship is beyond words.

He tries to see Shoko again. Nagatsuka runs interference for him.

They talk about friendship and what it means. Shoko tries to show him something in the notebook, but it gets dropped in the river.

Ishida jumps in the river to retrieve it. Shoko's friend gets a photo of this and posts it to social media.

Ishida is suspended from school.

Ishida goes to the park to pick up his younger cousin, where he finds Shoko's friend, with no shoes, sleeping in the equipment.

Shoko's friend is actually her younger sister, Yuzuru.

Ishida feeds her and gives her his old shoes and takes her home.

Her mother recognizes Ishida and gives him a smack across the face.

Mom tells Yuzuru not to get involved with a guy like that.

In elementary school, Shoko had one friend: Miyoko Sahara. But she left the school suddenly. Ishida and Shoko track her down for a reunion.

A series of coincidences lead to an encounter with Ueno, a girl who was in their sixth grade class.

She hasn't improved at all, wanting to bully Shoko again and calling Shoko and Ishida's friendship fake.

Shoko has fallen for Ishida. She gives him a gift and tells him she loves him. Out loud. This is no good, because her pronunciation is off enough that Ishida thinks she said "The Moon" and doesn't understand.

(Moon/Love puns are traditional in Japanese for some reason.)

Ishida asks Yuzuru if Shoko is avoiding him. She suggests he ask her out; if she doesn't want to, she'll just say no.

Ishida invites her on a group trip to an amusement park. But someone didn't vet the guest list, because Ueno is there.

Ueno tries to engineer a reconciliation between Ishida and Kazuiki Shimada, who was Ishida's best friend in elementary school, but threw him under the bus.

This fails.

Ueno blames Shoko for... roughly everything. She pulls her aside and suggests a peace treaty.

As two people who hate each other, can the just agree to coexist?

But Ueno's assumption is wrong. Shoko doesn't hate her.

Shoko hates herself.

Yuzuru has secretly videotaped the conversation and shows it to Ishida.

He says he wants Shoko to like herself.

Ishida's nascent friend group has a falling out when his history as a bully becomes known.

He spends most of the summer with Shoko, even reconciling a bit with her mom.

They all go to the fireworks display together.

Shoko leaves early. To study, she says.