A novel set around Honmokutei, a storytelling venue in Ueno, portraying storytellers, rakugo performers, regular patrons, and its proprietress. Affection for a fading entertainment culture overlaps with the joys and sorrows of people in the old downtown.

The voices gathered in a small storytelling hall hold together the memory of a fading art and the old downtown.

A collection centered on a novella about a former Yoshiwara courtesan who seeks ordinary happiness in a new household but struggles with marriage and her husband's child. It depicts women's passion and the frustrations of daily life with the density of autobiographical fiction.

The more Sakiko seeks ordinary happiness, the more the dust of life gathers before her.