An enigmatic train of events is set in motion when Suguro, all aging, respectably married Catholic novelist, is accosted by a drunken woman at a party. She claims to know him from his frequent visits to the unsavory porn district of Tokyo, where his portrait is being exhibited. Suguro denies any knowledge of the picture or ever having been in that part of town. Yet when a morbid curiosity compels him to track down the portrait, it seems oddly familiar, like a leering, degenerate-looking version of himself. Scandal is at once a psychological thriller and a literary work of art that grips and propels the reader as it subtly peels off layers from the dark side of human nature.