Kumiko is a sensible 10-year-old watching her family fall apart. Her gullible dope of a father has blown the family’s money on one get-rich-quick scheme after another, and her mother has taken off in frustration, taking what’s left of her money to go on a cruise to get away from it all. Her dad is ready to end it all when the two of them follow an odd trail left by a crow to a Francophilic dandy with big buck teeth who calls himself the Director of the obscure French Research Institute who offers them a chance at a big payday. He wants them to fly to Paris, go to the Louvre, and temporarily steal Vermeer’s painting “The Lacemaker.” True to form, dad agrees to it, and a reluctant Kumiko has to go with him to try to stop things from going completely off the rails. Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, a cop is onto the Director and starts closing the net around him.