The Setting Sun
 The story revolves around an aristocrat family who lost all of their money after World War II. The family consists of three people - Kazuko, Naoji and their mother. Naoji is a soldier in the South Pacific and is absent throughout much of the beginning of the novel. Kazuko was married once before, but divorced. The story starts out in the family's old house, with Kazuko's mother eating rationed food. Then Kazuko has a flashback to a time when she tried to burn snake eggs, thinking that they were viper eggs. It is revealed that at the time of Kazuko's father's death, there were many snakes present. Therefore, snakes have become ominous in her mother's eyes. After recalling the time Kazuko burned the eggs, she reveals that she feels a snake is growing inside of her own chest. The family eventually moves to the countryside and Kazuko begins to work in the fields. She claims to be growing into a "coarse woman" because of this. Naoji eventually returns, but is addicted to opium and is cruel to his mother and sister. He also goes out every night drinking. Kazuko finds Naoji's "Moonflower Journal," which he wrote when he had narcotic poisoning. It consists of pages upon pages of unconnected gripes about the world, and how people always lie. Kazuko falls for a novelist named Mr. Uehara, and writes three letters to him, claiming to love a man named M.C., while addressing the letter to him with two combinations of M.C. after his name. “My Chekhov” and “My Child”, showing that he was in fact the one she is referring to in the letters. He never responds. Soon after, her mother is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Kazuko finds a black snake on the porch and remembers how her father died when one was present. She yells at it, claiming to have already felt its vengeance, but it doesn’t go away. Her mother eventually passes away. After an outing with Mr. Uehara six years after she met him, she realizes that he also is not in the best health and calls him a victim. That morning, Kazuko finds out that her brother Naoji has committed suicide. In his suicide note, he reveals his reasons for not wanting to live anymore, and claims that humans have the right to choose whether or not they want to live or die. He also tells Kazuko about a woman he was in love with, but had difficulty writing her name. He finally reveals that her name is Suga. His last request is that he be buried in his mother's hemp kimono, something he had wanted to wear the next summer. In the last chapter, Kazuko claims that people keep leaving her. The story ends with a letter to Mr. Uehara. She reveals that she is pregnant, and that she will happily raise the child on her own. She has thrown away the old morality and is embracing a new way of life, very much like what all of Japan was going through. She says that they are "victims of a transitional period", and ends the letter addressing Mr. Uehara once again as M.C., My Comedian.