Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties, works at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman, and on top of that Mitsuki must deal with her ailing eighty-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself guiltily dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. A literary novel that offers insight into a complex and paradoxical culture, while also being a profound work about mothers and daughters, and the resilience of women.