Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers

She clings to routine and small duties, caring for her pet turtle Taro and staying in touch with her husband by phone. The sudden flood interrupts the quiet, forcing a stranger—a plumber—into her home and hinting at a life beyond the four walls. This small disruption plants a craving for something more than the ordinary.

An accidental flood drives a plumber into Suzume's dwelling, breaking the everyday routine. The intrusion unsettles her orderly world and sparks the first stir of curiosity about what lies beyond her apartment.

While exploring a crowded street, a stray flyer promises spies and leads Suzume to a ramshackle home. She meets Shizuo and Etsuko Kugitani, an unemployed couple who secretly work for a shadowy organization. They emphasize the rule of staying utterly ordinary, and Suzume buys sunglasses to feel detached and daring.

Back in ordinary life, Suzume encounters her best friend Kujaku again while lining up for a prize wheel. They miss the grand France prize, but win a modest fishing trip that sparks a new kind of joy in Suzume. Their friendship is colored by a childhood memory where Kujaku once cut the village power to peek at Suzume's childhood sweetheart, Kato.

The memory reveals why Suzume cannot refuse Kujaku's influence: a reckless act that ended with a sting when Kujaku cut the village power to reveal Suzume's childhood sweetheart, Kato. The moment binds their bond with a mix of affection and guilt. It foreshadows later loyalties.

During the fishing trip, a body surfaces from the water, shattering the peaceful excursion. An unnamed faction outside the known world notes the corpse may be a spy, triggering broader interest in alleged agents.

Suzume finally meets Kato, who proves to be bald, unsettling her expectations. He disappears again when his son arrives, pulling him away and leaving Suzume with questions and a sense of loss.

Spies are contacted by their government and ordered to return home; Suzume is told to bid farewell to friends and family, never sure if she will see them again. Kujaku has vanished, and the external pressure grows as patrols tighten around the city.

As the pressure mounts, Suzume weighs shredding her old life; she makes the drastic gesture of tossing Taro the turtle into the river, a symbolic cut of her ties. The act marks her willingness to risk everything for those she loves.

She repeats Kujaku's earlier gesture—cutting the power—to create a moment of vulnerability and resilience, signaling the others' determination to return home.

At the rendezvous point, Shizuo informs Suzume that authorities recommend she stay at home. An elderly woman, revealed as the mission's leader, opens a trap door beneath her bench, signaling the end of one chapter and the start of another.

The film closes with Kujaku achieving her Paris dream from a prison tower, gazing at the Eiffel Tower, while Suzume walks away, hopeful and resolute, ready to come to Kujaku's aid if needed. The world remains unsettled, but Suzume's loyalty to her friends endures.