Five characters who, after living painful moments, wonder about the meaning of life, and the possibility of being happy. Mimi is crumbling when she discovers her boyfriend has left her, and only her relationship with Nishiyama, a young man working in a bar in a dead end, will help her overcome her sadness.

Divided into two books of twenty-four chapters each, following the structure of The Well-Tempered Key from Bach, the novel -his first long run work since Kafka on the Shore- is a compendium of the best Murakami: a prodigious imagination tinged with a delicate sense of humor; lonely and hurt people but driven by universal longings, and rarefied atmosphere, laden with sensuality and violence of stunning beauty.