[3] Set in seventies Japan, the novel follows a woman named Takiko Odaka as she heads to a hospital to give birth to a boy.

While her parents disapprove of her pregnancy, which resulted from an affair with a married man, Takiko embraces the challenge of motherhood—which she views as an escape from the pressures and hardships of her family—while she and her child live in Tokyo.

[5] In LitHub, Groff observed Tsushima's unprecedented handling of single parenthood as a topic in Japanese literature while also cautioning readers against interpreting her novels as I-novels or autofiction.

[7] Minnesota Star Tribune lauded Harcourt's "fine translation" and praised Tsushima's "atmospheric, lovely descriptions" and "dreamlike, almost mystical sequences".

[8] The Japan Society noted some sense of antiquatedness in Harcourt's translation from the nineties but nonetheless appreciated its "lucid quality, emphasising the artistic cleanliness of Tsushima’s prose all the more.