The action opens in the house of the vice president’s home where a party is held in the honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, a CEO of an electronics company. Many officials were invited and also an opera singer named Roxanne Coss. After Coss finishes singing, a group of terrorists take everyone in the house hostage. The terrorists hoped that the president would be attending the party but he was not present so the terrorists decided to hold the rest of the guests captive and begin a standoff with the government.
The first night passes and no one was killed. The hostages are taken to the bathroom and begin talking to one another as if everything was normal. A man from the Red Cross arrived to discuss the release of the ill in exchange for food and supplies the terrorists may need. The terrorist agree and the women, the children and the ill are allowed to leave.
Roxanne is told to stay begin and her accompanist remains too, despite the fact that he is ill. Roxanne remembers when Christopf declared his love for her and feel guilty for not behaving in a more positive way. Christopf dies soon after and his death affects Roxanne who feels responsible for him.
The terrorists begin to gather information about everyone in the room, thinking how they can be used to achieve what they want. The terrorists release another group of hostages and 39 men and Roxanne are the people who remain behind. Slowly, the hostages and the terrorists fall into a routine. The children discover a TV and begin spending their time in front of it while other hostages, such as Hosokawa, begin to learn Spanish. The hostages act in a parental way towards the young terrorist and they feel even more compassion towards them when they discover that two young girls are also among the terrorists.
Two weeks pass and Roxanne decides that she wants to start practicing her singing again. She is helped by Tetsuya Kato, an executive in Hosokawa’s factory who accompanies her by playing the piano. Both the hostages and the terrorists are moved by the music and Kato and Roxanne decide to play every day from that day on.
Watanabe becomes the translator and is named the general’s translator because of his skills. Messner continues to come regularly to the house, bringing the hostages the things they need. It is also revealed that the General was a school teacher who became a terrorist after his brother was shot because he was distributing flyers. The general population became tired of having their loved ones imprisoned and shot because of their political views so they decided to take action and try and change the way the country was run.
The General feels that the atmosphere in the house was becoming too relaxed so he tries to stop Messner from coming into the house with the new music sheets but gives in after Roxanne threatens to never sing again if Messner is not let inside. The General gives in and that night, Roxanne and Kato begin playing and singing, creating a relaxed atmosphere once more. A relationship also begins to slowly develop between Watanabe and one of the female terrorist named Carmen who asks Watanabe to teach her Spanish.
Soon after that, the state stops sending them cooked food and sends them ingredients they can cook. They men and women find themselves in an uncomfortable situation where no one really knows how to cook and the men who know how to cook are not allowed to use a knife. As a result, it is decided that the two terrorist girls will cut the vegetables and everything else that needs to be cut while Thibault will tell them what to do.
One day, while cooking, Thibault takes the knife from one of the girls to show her how to properly cut a vegetable and Carmen gets scared and points her gun at him. She lets him however continue cooking while supervising him. That day, Carmen and Watanabe agree to meet that night to start their first Spanish lesson in secret. Carmen and Watanabe continue to meet in secret and Carmen tells Watanabe that she wishes they would remain together in the house. Watanabe tells her that they will probably not be able to do that but he admits his feeling for her and kisses her.
Fyodorov confesses his love to Coss with Watanabe’s help and while Watanabe feel uncomfortable, Coss remains unmoved by Fyodorov’s confession and responds to it in a civil manner. The relationship between the hostages and the terrorists becomes even more relaxed and they begin to interact even more. Father Arguedas listens to the confessions of both the terrorists and the captives, The general and Hosokawa play chess regularly and just enjoy their presence. Even Messner has become fond of the terrorists and goes as far as suggesting the terrorists escape the same way they entered the mansion and to escape.
Coss and Hosokawa also fall in love and with Carmen’s help, they are able to meet in Coss’s room and spend a night together. The General grants the hostages permission to go outside for the first time in months. The hostages begin running and just enjoying the outdoors while some hostages talk among themselves. The vice-president and another hostage talk about one of the young terrorists, Ishmael and how they would like to adopt him once the standoff will be over. Father Arguedas listens to them and notes how their fantasies are most likely not happen but still wishes they could become true.
The couples continue to meet in secret every night. Messner is worried about how the country will react and advices the General to surrender. The General however refuses, not thinking that the standoff will ever be over. Then, one day, when everything seemed to be normal and the terrorists and the hostages went about their day, troops came in and shoot all the terrorists, including the girls and the children. Hosokawa is also killed when he tries to stop the troops from killing Carmen. Thus, the novel ends with the death of the terrorists and with the uncertain future of the hostages.
