M, a mystery writer, has a girlfriend of five years named F, who disappeared on Halloween night. When a woman comes and claims to be her sister, M begins the…

Five loosely connected storylines concerning the secrets and lies, the fears and tears, and the puerile potty jokes that punctuate the characters’ daily (and in one eerie case, nightly) encounters.

Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called…