 "The Love Suicides at Sonezaki" is a short play in three scenes, staged over a day and a night.The two central characters are a young orphan merchant clerk named Tokubei (whose firm deals in oil or possibly soy) and the courtesan with whom he is in love, Ohatsu.In the first scene, Tokubei and an apprentice to their "firm of Hirano in Uchihon Street" are making the rounds of the firm's customers, delivering their wares and collecting on the bills, when, on the grounds of the Ikutama Shrine (in Osaka), Tokubei encounters his beloved Ohatsu, who berates him for his coldness in not visiting or writing her for some time now, and also for not confiding in her troubles.