In 1863, amid the turmoil of late-Edo calls to expel foreigners, an American merchant ship runs aground near Mikurajima. After the island takes in its passengers, mysterious deaths and disappearances occur among both islanders and the foreigners, and a young local leader races to solve the case. With help from John Manjiro, who arrives alongside shogunate officials, he confronts the mystery on a closed island in this historical detective novel.

The grounding of a foreign ship brings a chain of deaths and disappearances to an isolated island.