Late one night, cram school operator Shirow Murakami is awakened by a cryptic phone call from an old school chum, Kunio Matsuoka, requesting that he move Matsuoka's car. Murakami is given a nonexistent license plate number. Not that Matsuoka even owned a car to begin with.
Matsuoka had recently abandoned his wife Miyuki and their infant daughter. His flight appears somehow tied to the disappearance of a female TV personality, who, during a live broadcast, saw something so moving she made a special religious sign while on camera.
This work by popular science-fiction and horror author Koji Suzuki revives memories of the creepy things happening in Japan back in 1994-95, when young Aum Supreme Truth cultists, in their distinctive garments, could be seen passing out tracts on Tokyo street corners.