On January 26, 1948, a man identifying himself as a public health official arrives at a bank in Tokyo. He explains that there has been an outbreak of dysentery in the neighborhood, and he has been assigned by Occupation authorities to treat everyone who might have been exposed to the disease. Soon after drinking the medicine he administers, twelve employees are dead, four are unconscious, and the "official" has fled. Twelve voices tell the story of the murder from different perspectives. Each voice enlarges and deepens the portrait of a city and a people making their way out of a war-induced hell.