[1][2][3][4] The novel, apparently autobiographical, describes the world as discovered and seen by a three-year-old child born in Japan to a Belgian family.

It encompasses the themes of self-awareness, language acquisition, bilingualism, and developmental psychology.

Only when she discovers the existence of pleasure by eating white chocolate she comes to a quiet.

Most fascinating to the narrator is the discovery of water in oceans, seas, pools, puddles, streams, ponds, and, rain - one meaning of the Japanese character for her name and a symbol of her amphibious life.

This discovery despairs her to the point of attempting suicide, but she is rescued from drowning in the pond with the carp.