Nagiko's father was a calligrapher, and when she was a little girl he would write his birthday greetings on her face. Her mother would read aloud from a 1,000 year-old manuscript, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, which dealt among other things with the arts of love. Nagiko grows up obsessed with calligraphy, human flesh, poetry, sexuality, and the idea to create her own Pillow Book.