The year is 1985. Kiwako is an ordinary office worker, in love with a married man, until an unwanted abortion causes her to snap. She kidnaps her lover's six-month-old girl and runs away with her, eventually taking refuge in all-female commune controlled by a religious cult. Here she attempts to raise the girl. Fifteen years later, the child, Elena, is an adult struggling to return to her natural family, made up of a mother who doesn't come home, an alcoholic father, and siblings with whom she can't connect. Mitsuyo Kakuta's powerful second novel is a sympathetic portrait of two women brought together by tragedy, each struggling to control her destiny.

Translated by: Margaret Mitsutani