Taking place largely at Ikuta Shrine, near the scene of the battle, it centers on Atsumori's fictional son, who seeks to meet his father's ghost.
The boy then tells the monk that he had a dream while praying, in which a voice told him to go to Ikuta Shrine in order to see his father.
Through the intervention of the Kamo kami, Atsumori explains, he has been granted by Yama, the lord of death, a brief opportunity to appear here in the mortal world, to meet his son.
A messenger of Yama then appears, and takes Atsumori with him, back to the realm of the shura, the hell of constant battle.
Before the meeting of father and son, Atsumori recites the five attributes of "beauty, perception, knowledge, motion, consciousness".
The boy’s prayers and longing for his father was so powerful that the gods allowed Atsumori to briefly leave Hell and meet his son.