After reading "Timothy's Birthday" by William Trevor and "The Moor" by Russell Banks, Murakami felt haunted and decided to collect more birthday-themed stories for an anthology.

In a frame story, a married woman with children recounts to her friend what happened on her twentieth birthday (the age of majority in Japan at the time this was written.

The woman begins by saying she spent that day working overtime as a waitress at an Italian restaurant in Roppongi because her friend called in sick at the last minute.

After explaining the situation, he invites her into the room and asks for five minutes of her time; she agrees.

The incessant rain creates an atmosphere that disrupts the ordinary, mundane circumstances of serving tables on one's 20th birthday.