English gardens, an Edo-period slasher, a deserter, a mother afflicted with a disease that makes her younger, love, and mysterious words: diverse fragments link together as multiple stories intersect in this experimental fantasy novel.

From gardens to Edo, fragmentary stories overlap and move toward the edge of the world.

A fantasy set in a small ancient state, following Kai, a legendary dancer born the eldest son of a distinguished family yet derided as a dancing monkey. Having given up both love and a future, he saves a country in crisis on a war-torn peninsula and recovers a way of living for himself.

Can a scorned dancer save a nation in crisis?