Narrated in the first person by the protagonist, a salaryman named Jōji, the novel follows his attempt to groom a Eurasian-looking girl, the eponymous Naomi, to be a Westernized woman.
Jōji sees Naomi for the first time in a café and instantly falls for her exotic "Eurasian" looks, Western-sounding name, and sophisticated mannerisms.
Like the story of the prepubescent Murasaki no Ue in the The Tale of Genji, Jōji decides he will raise Naomi, a fifteen-year-old café hostess, to be his perfect woman: in this case, he will forge her into a glamorous Western-style girl like Mary Pickford, the famous Canadian actress of the silent film era, whom he thinks Naomi resembles.
As Naomi matures into a beautiful young woman, she learns to exploit the full potential of her sexual appeal, and when Joji discovers that she has been cheating on him with multiple younger men, his fascination turns to jealousy and hysterical obsession.
Seizing the propitious moment, Naomi adroitly takes the reins and proceeds to train her serially cuckolded husband, in Pavlovian fashion, to comply with her every selfish demand.
Distraught with frustrated desire, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Joji suddenly submits unconditionally, promising to agree to whatever she wishes, so long as she never leave him.
She agrees to this proposal only providing that he comply with a series of non-negotiable, draconian terms: The humiliating treatment that she regularly subjects him to, which he had once deeply resented, he now finds titillating and anticipates with giddy enthusiasm.
Women became sales associates in department stores, or worked in service related jobs (in Naomi’s case as a café waitress).
[3] Culture critics picked up Tanizaki's term modan garu, from the English "modern girl", to describe this new class of women.
"Modern girls" can be described as being independent, not bound by traditions or conventions, lacking Japanese grace but having tons of vitality, and holding apolitical views (not caring about women's suffrage).
[6] Tanizaki's writing is applauded by literary critics for his ability to turn a glum café waitress with Eurasian features into a manipulative succubus.
[6] He shows the irony of both sexual and cultural conquest, and sums it up in the opening paragraph of his book: "As Japan grows increasingly cosmopolitan, Japanese and foreigners are eagerly mingling with one another; all sorts of new doctrines and philosophies are being introduced; and both men and women are adopting up-to-date Western fashions.
The younger generation embraced the modan garu lifestyle embodied by Naomi, who provided a role model for independent young women in Japan's cities.
On the other hand, the character's aggressive sexuality and manipulation shocked the older generation of Japanese, who deemed the story too obscene and risqué to be published.
After the Meiji Restoration, the educated males moved into the cities to attend universities and become white-collar business workers as opposed to the farmers, artisans, and merchants of the past.
[citation needed] The novel also depicts the contrast between the naive country bumpkin (in this novel, Jōji) and the slick city dweller (Naomi), a common phenomenon in Japanese society and literature of the twentieth century.