Kazu is the first-person narrator of the novel. Kazu was born on the same day as the emperor, and he grew up poor. When he was old enough to work, he helped his father gather surf clams. Eventually, he became an itinerant worker and ended up moving to Tokyo to work construction in advance of the 1964 Olympics. Kazu was married and started a family, but he was almost always away from home. As a consequence, he was not there to watch his children grow up.

Eventually, Kazu lost his home, and much of the novel centers on his experiences as a person without a home: how he became one and how he lived from day to day. These details are provided to us via recollections and flashbacks, as Kazu in the novel’s present is a ghost. Kazu’s life story is one of loss, heartbreak, and tragedy. His son Koichi died at 21 years old, and Kazu’s retelling of the funeral reveals a heavy internal burden of guilt. Since he was away so much, working to provide for his family, he does not truly know any of them—a realization that begins with Koichi’s death. Kazu also loses his wife, Setsuko, and his granddaughter Mari is killed in the tsunami of 2011.