Satoshi Morishita

In a rural village, there lives a man named Zoroku, with his sister, Haruko. All is well until one day, Zoroku becomes infected with a bizarre disease that blisters his skin and deforms his body. Fearing the reactions of the townspeople, his parents lock him in the house. Unfortunately, the village chief sees him, and soon, Zoroku and Haruko are mistreated by everyone in the village. Unable to watch Haruko suffer any longer, the parents decide to end Zoroku's misery themselves. Haruko tries to save her brother, and they leave home, but what comes afterward?

Aoi is a young nursery school teacher whose fiancé leaves her. Her friend Michiko works in a call centre and has ‘lots of free time, but little freedom’. She no longer interacts with her husband, aside from the occasional sad blow job. Then there’s her attractive tennis teacher Masaki, with whom she’s having an affair that’s conducted when they’re pulled up in parking lots. And finally there’s his friend K., a self-proclaimed genius with authoritarian tendencies.

Haruo has a dream to become the best magician, but, so far, he is only a marginal magician. Haruo also doesn't have parents. He then goes back 40 years in time to Asakusa, Tokyo. There, he meets his parents when they were young and he learns the secret of his birth.

On the outset, the Okunos seem like a normal happy family with father Tadashi and his two bright sons, genetics researcher Izumi and artsy Haru. When a series of arson attacks strike the neighborhood, clues left at the crime scenes seem to be somehow related to the Okunos. Izumi and Haru try to get to the bottom of mystery, slowly unveiling a tragic family secret that has come back to haunt them.