Young inspector Takakura moves to a suburb with his wife after a hostage situation gone wrong to become a university lecturer. Unfortunately, the couple find themselves living next to a bizarre, off-putting man, Mr. Nishino, with a frightened daughter and a wife who never shows her face. As Takakura invests a cold case involving a nearby house and an orphaned teenager, Nishino insinuates himself more and more into their lives.