One night in his sixties, Shingo hears a sound from mountain. He superstitiously associates it with death. Although except for memory loss; he is not bad in terms of his health but death seems to grow more real as one grows old.

After hearing this sound, Shingo start reconsidering his life. Was his life a success? What is ideal way to die? If someone is suffering from bad health with no chance of recovery, isn't it better to die rather than suffer uselessly? Should one die early when one is still loved rather than wait till one becomes a burden on his family?

Shingo thinks that success of a parent's life should be judged in terms of success of his children's marriages (not a bad assumption in cases where parents decide who their children will marry to.) However there are problems in marriages of his children and he blames himself for that.

Moreover, Shingo feels guilty by the fact that he still fantasizes his long dead sister-in-law and is attracted to his daughter-in-law. He doesn't act on such instincts but he can't control his dreams or a memory that suddenly shows up.

He actually feels repelled on seeing his wife and is not happy that his daughter is not as beautiful as his sister-in-law. All this makes him feel lonely despite being surrounded by his family.

The novel is a collection of small and at times disjointed chapters in which we thus see him growing emotionally distant from people and closer to environment (plants, animals etc). The loneliness of old age sounds too depressing.

Besides recreating psychology of an old man; simplicity of prose, the feel(that it creates) of being close to environment and Japanese Culture are some of qualities that make it such a delight of read.

Spoiler

Another striking feature is that the story seems to have been left unfinished. Shingo doesn't die in the end as you could expect. In fact there is no sense of ending. Much like life which seems to be forever in transition.