Japan has embarked upon the path to the second World War. A melancholic Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965) has been shown a newspaper article about a strange homicide by his editor, Masashi Yokomizo. It seems a local housewife has killed her husband by suffocating him in a trousseau chest. A chill runs down Rampo's spine. The crime is exactly like the murder that takes place in a short story he recently completed. Can this be mere coincidence? It has to be since the piece was banned by the government, and therefore, unpublished. Unable to hold back his curiosity, Rampo visits the woman in question, Shizuko. Wonder turns to horror when he finds that she is identical to the ideal woman he had created in his imagination. Inspired by his passion for this possible murderer, Rampo begins to write a sequel to his banned story.