Because of the boyhood trauma of seeing his mother make love to another man in the presence of his dying father, Mizoguchi becomes a hopeless stutterer. Taunted by his schoolmates, he feels utterly alone until he becomes an acolyte at a famous temple in Kyoto, where he developes an obsession with the temple´s beauty. In the novel´s soaring climax, he tries desperately to free himself from his fixation.