The story focuses on a boy named Kōichi Sakakibara who, upon transferring into Yomiyama Middle School and meeting the curious Mei Misaki, finds himself in a mystery revolving around students and people related to his class falling victim to gruesome, senseless deaths.

A manga adaptation by Hiro Kiyohara was serialized between May 2010 and January 2012 in the issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace.

Devastated by the loss, the students and teacher of class 3-3 continued to behave as though Misaki was still alive, leading to a strange presence shown within the graduation photo.

In Spring 1998, Kōichi Sakakibara transfers into Yomiyama's class 3-3, where he meets Mei Misaki, a quiet student whom their classmates as well as the teacher seemingly ignore.

Realizing that these deaths are related to the long deceased "Misaki of 1972", a yearly calamity that has struck most every class 3-3 since 1972, Kōichi and Mei seek to figure out how to stop it before it kills anymore of their classmates or them.

The novel was originally serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's literary magazine Yasai Jidai in intermittent periods between the August 2006 and May 2009 issues.

[22][23] A re-release of the bunkobon edition featuring illustrations by Noizi Ito was released under the imprint Sneaker Bunko on March 1, 2012.

[32][33] A manga adaptation illustrated by Hiro Kiyohara was serialized between the May 2010 and January 2012 issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine.

[40] A live-action film adaptation of the same name, directed by Takeshi Furusawa[41] and produced by Kadokawa Pictures was released in Japanese theaters on August 4, 2012.