Etsuko loves the shy, young lecturer who clumsily (albeit charmingly) courts her. Her family, however, have very different ideas; his past is suspect - unthinkable for a suitor in Japan. They marry anyway but on their wedding night he is called away by an urgent phone call and by morning he is still missing. A superbly crafted crime novel by one of Japan's most popular writers, this is a clever, quintessentially Japanese thriller that takes a fascinating look at the moral heart of Japan.