Twenty-two-year-old Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel. Surprised that she might, after all, be a lesbian, Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend E about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire and should she ever tell Miu how she feels about her. Frustrated in his own love for Sumire, E consoles himself by having an affair with the mother of one of his pupils. Then a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island and asks for his help and he discovers that something very strange has happened to Sumire. Sputnik Sweetheart has touched me deeper and pushed me further than anything I`ve read for a long time