The story of a Japanese boy's development towards a homosexual identity during and after the Second World War. In narrating his progress from an isolated childhood through adolescence to manhood, he exposes his inner life, full of repressed homosexual desires and preoccupations with sadomasochism and death. The enduring power of the novel is in part owing to its themes of fantasy, despair, and alienation, its eloquent voice and its autobiographical nature - the equally enduring fascination with the life and character of one of Japan's most turbulent artists.