In the buildup to World War II, Ono, a promising artist, breaks away from the teaching of his master, whose artistic aim was to reach an aesthetic ideal in representations of the 'floating world' of night-time entertainments. Ono becomes involved in far-right politics, and begins making propagandistic art. Later, as a member of the Cultural Committee of the Interior Department and official adviser to the Committee of Unpatriotic Activities, Ono becomes a police informer, taking an active part in an ideological witch hunt against a former student, Koroda. After the 1945 defeat and the collapse of Imperial Japan, Ono becomes a discredited figure, one of the "traitors" who "led the country astray"; meanwhile, the victims of state repression, including people Ono himself had denounced, are reinstated and allowed to lead a normal life. Over the course of the novel Ono seems to show a growing acknowledgement of his past "errors", although this acknowledgement is never explicitly stated, and his narration is marked by declarations of uncertainty in his memory of past events and a high degree of unreliability.