It was, as one might expect for a psycho-thriller, a dark and stormy night. Taking a hint from Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), Miyuki Miyabe wades into her narrative with, "I couldn't see more than a yard in front of me, even with my headlights on. The rain poured down and the road was full of puddles . . ."
The voice relating this tale is Shogo Kosaka, a reporter for Arrow, a weekly magazine. Driving back to Tokyo from his parents' house in the middle of a powerful typhoon, Kosaka gives a ride to Shinji Inamura, a very strange teenager.
Nearby, a 6-year-old boy searching for his cat is swept away because someone removed a manhole cover from the center of the flooded road, setting off a karmic chain reaction.