[4][5] After having returned from England, Kenzō, an egocentric, emotionally detached man in his thirties, teaches English literature at Tokyo Imperial University.

His wife Osumi, with whom he constantly argues, is pregnant with their third child, and to improve their finances he starts writing articles for magazines until late in the night.

While he holds neither one of his siblings in high regard, he supports his older, sickly half-sister Onatsu with a monthly income, although she is herself married (her husband Hida is rumoured to spend his money on a mistress), and he also lends money to his older brother Chōtarō.

Kenzō remembers his secure but loveless childhood at his possessive foster parents' home, where he lived between the age of two and eight.

[6] Grass on the Wayside first appeared in serialised form in the Asahi Shimbun between 3 June 1915 and 10 September 1915.