Keiichi Maebara and his family move from the noisy, bustling city to the quiet little town of Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983. As Keiichi settles in, he meets some local girls who quickly become his steadfast group of friends: Satoko Houjou, Rika Furude, Rena Ryuuguu, and Mion Sonozaki. While their life is mostly carefree and fun-filled, he begins to discover that things in Hinamizawa are not as they appear to be. During the annual Cotton Drifting Festival, Keiichi learns that there have been murders and disappearances for the past few years in the aftermath of the celebration. Referred to as "Oyashiro's Curse," the suspicious townsfolk say that those who anger Hinamizawa's patron god will be cursed to die or disappear. At first, he believes that such things are mere folk tales meant to scare misbehaving children. But when a murder and a disappearance occur after the festival and his friends refuse to talk about the strange events in the village, Keiichi begins to wonder if his new friends may have something to do with the horrific events—and if he might be the next to die. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

When Keiichi Maebara moved to the small village of Hinamizawa, he did not expect to make friends so quickly. Now Keiichi's days are spent having fun and playing games with his new companions, and his life couldn't be better. However, one day he sees one of his friends, the tomboyish Mion Sonozaki, working at a maid café. Deciding to tease her about it, his initial joking quickly turns to shock as the girl reveals that she is actually Mion's twin sister, Shion. As luck would have it, both girls want to spend the annual Cotton Drifting Festival by Keiichi's side. But when Shion breaks the town's sacred rules and sneaks into a sealed shrine during the festival, dragging Keiichi along with her, things take a turn for the worse. Now, Keiichi and Shion find themselves in fear of being spirited away due to their mistake and must find a way to atone before it is too late. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

The Sonozaki family of Hinamizawa has kept twin sisters Mion and Shion apart for as long as they can remember. Mion will become the next heir of the Sonozaki family, and Shion will attend St. Lucia Academy, away from her dear sister and their relatives. But Shion escapes the school and returns to Hinamizawa, unaware of the cruel tragedy awaiting her. When she reunites with her sister and gets a part-time job—while pretending to be Mion—she meets Satoshi Houjou, a boy her age with whom she falls madly in love. But when she learns about Satoshi's horrible family situation, she begins to resent everyone in his household—even his younger sister, Satoko. When tensions escalate and Satoshi abruptly goes missing, Shion begins to suspect that her own family may have had something to do with his disappearance. A year later, Shion meets Keiichi Maebara, Mion's crush. Her sister's infatuation with Keiichi stirs up her old feelings for Satoshi, and awakens a vicious desire to find out the truth behind his disappearance once and for all. However, Shion's quest for the truth will send her spiraling down a dark path of madness and despair. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

In the summer of 1983, Rena Ryuuguu and her friends are enjoying their days the way they always have: playing games and living a life of contentment in the village of Hinamizawa. But darkness is forming in Rena's heart, and even her closest friends may not be safe from it. Rena's divorced father has recently found a new girlfriend, a sleazy woman named Rina Mamiya. Rena's hatred of her is solidified when she discovers that the woman and her true boyfriend are trying to swindle Rena's father out of his money. After a tumultuous confrontation with Rina about what she has learned, Rena realizes that she must resort to desperate measures to keep her father safe. When her friends notice that she is acting rather strange, they investigate what she has done, but instead of abandoning her as Rena assumed they would, they band together to support and help her. However, when she discovers a shocking snag in her plans, Rena realizes that she may have trusted the wrong people, and begins to become highly suspicious of her friends and the other townspeople. And as she uncovers the truth about the town's long history of murders and disappearances, she realizes that only drastic actions can save the village from utter destruction. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyoko Tanashi lived a charmed life with her parents, but after losing both of them in a devastating train accident, the life she knew was suddenly ripped away. Sent to a secluded orphanage in the mountains, she is subjected to inhumane abuse at the hands of her caretakers; escape is not an option since runaways are met with a fate far worse than death. But eventually, Miyoko manages to flee and receive aid from her father's mentor—a researcher named Dr. Hifumi Takano. Adopted by Hifumi and finally free from her hell, Miyoko takes on a different identity to go along with her new life. When Hifumi's research on a mysterious disease in a mountain village is ridiculed, Miyoko makes it her life's work to prove that the disease truly exists. However, her mission soon turns into a deadly obsession once she arrives in the village, as she is more than willing to prove the doctor's findings by any means necessary... In the conclusion to the Higurashi story, warring fates and indomitable wills clash in this final confrontation in June of 1983. [Written MAL Rewrite]