A dramatization of a work by Japan's undisputed queen of mystery and perenially popular author, Miyuki Miyabe. Saburo Sugimura is employed in the public relations sections of huge conglomerate, Imada Corporation. when he receives an odd request from his father-in-law, Yoshichika Imada, the company chairman. The favor has something to do with looking into the tragic death of the chairman's personal driver, Nobuo Kajita, who had been an enthusiastic supporter of Sugimura's marriage to the chairman's daughter. While Sugimura hopes the death was nothing more than an accident, new facts come to light that point instead to foul play. All people have "poison" in their hearts in varying quantities, and Sugimura finds that Kajita's death may have been the result of the daily gradual spread of secretly-harbored poison of the heart. Here then ensues a genuine psycho thriller that brings the varied drama of the human condition into bold relief.

The lakeside at Lake Yamanaka is covered with snow. In the vacation house in such a quiet area owned by the chairman of Watsuji Seiyaku, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in Japan, the tragedy suddenly breaks out. ”I have killed my granduncle!!” says Mako, who is loved by everybody in the Watsuji family. She has stabbed her granduncle, Yohei, to death. Soon after the domestic homicide, the entire family joining together in an attempt to make it look like a crime committed by somebody outside the family, begins to engage in imitative deception...

Satomi is 33 years old and a teacher of Japanese history at a prestigious private high school. By anyone’s standards, she has both talent and beauty, but has been dubbed Ms. “Party of One” for wanting to do everything completely on her own. Work has been pretty hectic for her of late, and she has no time nor inclination for romance. But at a welcoming reception for a handsome new teacher 10 years her junior, Shinichi, she winds up releasing built-up tension in her life by getting very drunk. When she awakes the next morning, she is greeted by a terrible hangover and the sight of Shinichi, lying on the floor!

He’s divorced and a bit hopeless. Although considered a “loser,” he’s still a good person. She is in her 30s. Unmarried and no kids, she is considered by some to be a bit of a loser too which is a stab in the heart for any woman. There are men who are not offensive, but somehow useless. Men in their 30s, divorced and on top of that, a bit useless. Popular, but lightweights. That they are serious, but a bit dense is another mark against them. But there are some women, for whom this is actually a turn on. This is a different love story about guys like this and the women that surround them. It shows men and women in their 30s losing their way and making mistakes as they strive for happiness in a real and candid way.