In August 1997, after eight people, all non-Japanese, have been brutally murdered in Tokyo, the decision is taken to establish an international team to find the perpetrator of the "Fish Murders". From the experiences of the seven investigators and criminologists emerges an account of the relationship between Japanese and foreigners attempting to integrate into Japanese society.

The novel describes a society on the brink. The "economic bubble" in Japan has just burst. The banks have caved in. Mobile communication is not there yet. Recent disasters have not happened yet.

This pre-Fukushima, pre-Covid novel is an ode to pre-disaster Japan; nostalgic to those who knew Japan in the 1980ies and early 1990ies and informative to those who try to imagine that dynamic era when anything seemed possible, and then everything collapsed.