The story follows Shintaro as he visits his mentally ill mother in a seaside hospital with his father over nine days. The mother's approaching death, memories of postwar hardship, and the family's fraught emotions overlap in a tense, restrained portrait of love, resentment, and emptiness.

Nine days at a mother's deathbed illuminate family memory and the postwar void.

This historical novel portrays En, daughter of the Tosa domain official Nonaka Kenzan, who is imprisoned with her family as a child after a political struggle. Through the long years before pardon, the novel vividly presents a woman who watches the men she loves fall while retaining her pride and emotional force.

A vivid portrait of a woman's pride and sorrow as she endures years of confinement.