It is the fifth century. Ajita, a curious young boy, is endlessly fascinated by ants. How do they know where to seek food? How do they move in such orderly fashion? Do they communicate?

Ji-hye is an ordinary woman who has never been extraordinary in her thirty years of life. Even her name Ji-hye is one of the most ordinary in Korea.

When Margaret Ives, the famously reclusive heiress, invites eternal optimist Alice Scott to the balmy Little Crescent Island, Alice knows this is it: her big break. And even more rare: a chance to impress her family with a Serious Publication.

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident-Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He’d been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found.