A man on the brink of old age is introduced by a friend to a unique kind of brothel. It is intended for older men and offers young women in a deep sleep. Eguchi spends several nights in this house, with increasingly shorter intervals, alongside various young women and girls, who are described as reserved yet precise, sensual yet discreet. Each one is different. Each evokes different fantasies, different memories of women Eguchi has known in his life, including his own wife and daughters, lovers, and one-night acquaintances. In the end, a fatal complication arises. With his novel, Nobel laureate Kawabata (1899-1972) has done nothing more than capture this equally unusual and simple fundamental situation, making it memorable and thus elevating it to a story of love and death, of youth and old age.