The novel is narrated from the point of view of Etsuko, a Japanese woman who remarried a British man after her previous husband’s death and had a daughter called Niki with him. In the present time Niki is visiting her mother in her home at the British countryside after the death of her older sister Keiko from suicide. The plot goes back and forth between the present and the past with Etsuko remembering her life in Japan with her husband Jiro, her father-in-law while being pregnant with Keiko.
Etsuko remembers a woman she met at that time called Sachiko who had a little daughter called Mariko. The most of her recollection of the past involves her time with Sachiko. Sachiko was in a relationship with an American man who kept promising her to take her with him to America, but never actually keeping the promise. Etsuko remembers that Mariko was a strange girl, who talked very little and hated Frank. Mariko also kept mentioning a woman she keeps seeing and who wants to take her away. Sachiko explains to Etsuko that they knew a woman who died from the Nagasaki bombing, and alludes to that being the cause. Etsuko also remembers her father-in-law whom she was very fond of, and her husband who was very strict and cold.
Etsuko and her new husband wanted for Keiko to be happy in England, but she recalls that she always isolated herself in her room, and barely communicated with anyone. The novel ends with Niki leaving to London, and Etsuko watching her leave the gate of her home.
The novel essentially draws a parallel between two women, two mothers, Etsuko and Sachiko who end up having a similar fate. Sachiko is shown as a mother who keeps neglecting her daughter in pursuit for a better life for herself. Even though not directly mentioned, Etsuko makes a similar choice despite her daughter’s unhappiness. Her recollection of Sachiko telling her that she will be a good mother implies that she is questioning herself whether she was really a good mother to Keiko.
As well as the two mothers, Ishiguro draws parallels between the characters of Mariko and Keiko, despite the fact that Keiko only appears in the novel through memory or word-of-mouth. The two children alike have lost their natural Father's. Mariko does not like Frank, and it is mentioned that Keiko did not get along with her new Father-in-law either. In Japan, Mariko and her mother seem somewhat estranged from one another, but overall it suggests that Mariko is happier in Japan than she will be upon arrival in America. These same sentiments are reflected in Keiko and Etsuko, as after leaving Japan, Etsuko acknowledges that her daughter was happier beforehand, and in England she becomes estranged from her family which eventually leads to her taking her own life. This suggests that in America Mariko is likely to have felt the same sense of estrangement and dislocation from both family and society as Keiko felt in England.
The novel has an eerie atmosphere, ghostly presence is implied, even though never directly presented. The main theme explored is the theme of familial relationships, accent being on the mother-daughter relationship.
