In early-1900s London, Lili Ichijouin, a Japanese exchange student travels to England to enroll in the prestigious Saint Thomas Art Academy. Determined to become a painter, she arrives under pressure: her parents expect her to rise to the top of her class within six months or return home. Lili's drive intensifies when she encounters Kit Church, a gifted aristocratic student known for his talent and detachment. While Kit has devoted himself entirely to painting, Lili's sincerity and resilience begin to shift something in him. The two share little beyond their love for art, yet their relationship quickly becomes central to life at the academy.

Takes place in the year 2200, where Japan has become a land of cats as the human population's birth rate has declined. In this future world, cats can talk, learn, and work. The story follows a high school girl and her argumentative cat.

High school first year Yuu Yuutani has always been a good girl, following the rules, helping out around her house, and generally going through life unnoticed. From afar, she reveres her upperclassman and the school's Public Decency Officer, Atori Mizutori, and desperately wants her attention. When she realizes that the best way to get Atori to notice her is to be a delinquent, she begins to dress differently: she dyes parts of her hair a bright red, wears clips on her ears to resemble piercings, and attaches jumbo erasers to her shoes to give them thicker soles. Despite Yuu's best efforts and even with the advice of her "natural born delinquent" friend Suzu Suzukaze, all of her plans to be a bad girl go awry. Still, Yuu manages to befriend Atori and pledges to spend as much time as possible together, not knowing there are others vying for Atori's attention. In the process, Yuu has also gained the attention of the school's self-proclaimed idol, Rura Ruriha, filling her once-invisible life with more attention than she may be able to handle.

Abandoned as a child by her mother, Aoi Tsubaki has always had the ability to see "ayakashi"—spirits from the Hidden Realm. Shirou Tsubaki, her grandfather who shared the same ability, took her under his wing and taught her how to live with the ayakashi in peace. When her grandfather abruptly passes away, the independent Aoi must continue her college career, armed with only her knowledge in cooking as a means of protection against the human-eating spirits. In hopes that the ayakashi will not turn to her or other unknowing humans as a tasty meal, she takes it upon herself to feed the hungry creatures that cross her path. After giving a mysterious ayakashi her lunch, Aoi is transported to the Hidden Realm, where the ayakashi reveals himself to be an ogre-god known as Oodanna, the "Master Innkeeper." There, she learns that she was used as collateral for her grandfather's debt of one hundred million yen, and that she must pay the price for her grandfather's careless decision by marrying Oodanna. Aoi valiantly refuses and decides to settle things on her own terms: she will pay off the debt herself by opening an eatery at Oodanna's inn. Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi follows the journey of Aoi as she proceeds to change and touch the lives of the ayakashi through the one weapon she has against them—her delicious cooking.