The river is the Ganges, where a group of Japanese tourists converge: Isobe, grieving the death of the wife he ignored in life, Kiguchi, haunted by war-time memories of the Highway of Death in Burma, Numada, recovering from a critical illness, Mitsuko, a cynical woman struggling with inner emptiness, and, the butt of her cruel interest, Otsu, a failed seminarian for whom the figure on the cross is a god of many faces. In this novel, the renowned Japanese writer Shusaku Endo reaches his ultimate religious vision.