Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has been soured by infidelity. One day, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams. Now, each night, she sinks into another life: first as a high-ranking courtesan in the 17th century, and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. As she experiences desire and heartbreak in the past, so Riko comes to reconsider her life as a 21st-century woman - as a wife, as a mother, and as a lover - and to ask herself: after loving her husband and loving Mr Takaoka, is she is ready for her third great love?

HIROMI KAWAKAMI is an award-winning Japanese writer, whose fiction includes Strange Weather in Tokyo, The Nakano Thrift Shop, The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino and People From My Neighbourhood. TED GOOSSEN is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at York University in Toronto and has translated many writers including Haruki Murakami.