On this island, men are not born—which means all the women travel to Yoshiwara, the nightless city where male courtesans hold court, when they want what the island cannot provide. The protagonist Hidetomi Misawo has always understood this arrangement without finding it remarkable. But the day she actually enters Yoshiwara for the first time and sees the procession of beautiful men for herself is the day everything becomes remarkable. She steps through the gates of Kikuya, the finest establishment in the district, and her life changes.