At the bar Eden Hall in Ginza, Ryū Sasakura creates cocktails dubbed 'The Glass of the Gods.' Hotel redesigner Kamishima holds deep disregard for bartenders because of an embarrassing mistake he made as a younger man. He is shown the skill of the profession by Ryū, who creates a simple water-mix (mizuwari) by smashing Eden Hall's signature ice cup. Kamishima's bar redesign incorporates Ryū's explanation of the importance of bars; the featured cocktail is the Grasshopper.

Miwa Kurushima comes to Eden Hall to ask Ryū to find her 'Menu of the Heart.' As a child, she broke a bottle of alcohol intended to mend the rift between her father and Taizō Kurushima, her grandfather. The two had been fighting over modernizing the family hotel. Shortly after this accident, Miwa's parents were killed in a car crash. Ryū extrapolates that the beverage was Suntory's Kakubin (referred to in the show as 'Kaku'), a beverage at the crossroad of old and new Japan; the featured cocktail is the Nikolaschka.

Shimaoka, the head of an advertising company, is retiring, and his old love, the actress Mieko Yuzuki, has just died. The two of them wanted to perform together in Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House', until he decided to take over his family's company. Ryū uses the Margarita and its history to show Shimaoka that love can live on; the featured cocktail is the Margarita.

Ryū assists a couple on their first date. Meanwhile, Sayo Yusada is waiting for her husband for their anniversary, however the two have grown apart. Ryū mixes the Bijou Cocktail, then creates an Amber Dream from it, he explains that amber takes time to get its beauty, much like a marriage and the time a couple puts into it. The featured cocktails are the Bijou and Amber Dream.

A young salesmen, Shibata, is given a transfer notice from his boss after his sales figures are low. Ryū lifts the young man's spirits by telling him about Ernest Hemingway and the story The Old Man and the Sea; the featured cocktail is the Daiquiri.

Shizuo Kasahara, a screenwriter, has been having trouble writing scripts. He poses a riddle to various bartenders, having ordered four brands of single malt Scottish whiskeys (Laphroaig, Miltonduff, Glenburgie, and Ardbeg), asks what should be next. After going to several bars, his long-time friend and director Ryūji Mineyama catches up with Kasahara and they argue over why their productions are no longer original. Ryū answers the riddle, and by doing so helps the two men with their problem; the featured cocktail is the Aberdeen Angus.