It is August of 1945. An American submarine, silent and hidden, moves toward the darkened coast of an island. On board are an odd quartet: Gus, a commander who was once a student of religion; Angelo, a skilled navigator who conceals his secret almost to the end; Havenmeyer, who understands firearms and explosives better than he does the complexities of the soul; and Ikeda, caught be­tween two cultures and uncertain where his loyalty lies.
Thus begins a book like no other book: partly an adventure-thriller set in wartime Japan, partly a glimpse into a primitive world in which the Ainu who still live in small settle­ments on Hokkaido are turned into a race of occult artificers, half real and half magic. Interwoven into this is what is surely one of the strangest sexual encounters in modern litera­ture. In spite of the electric air of calmness in which everything hap­pens, the suspense builds page by page. When the climax finally comes, it is a double one, as unexpected as it is inevitable.