A married, Japanese father begins an affair with a coworker named Izumi. Before long, both of their spouses find out about the affair and abandon them, the man no longer able to see his wife or son. Izumi pleads with him to abandon Japan, for no good can come of them continuing to live there, so they take their life savings and move to a small Grecian island. One morning, he is reading Izumi a paper newspaper about a woman who was eaten by her cats after she died. This brings to mind a story about his childhood cat: one day he noticed that his cat was acting strange, as if possessed, then it scurried up a pine tree. Waiting for the cat at the base of the tree, he kept hoping it would peer down at him, but he never saw it again. The couple passes their time on the island doing practically nothing: they eat and drink conservatively, get exercise, and practice learning Greek. Izumi asks if he thinks about his son or wife, to which he lies and says yes. In reality, he hardly ever thinks about them, as if they were banished from his mind. She tells him that if he wants to leave, he should, and not let her be the one that makes him stay. That night, he wakes up to find Izumi missing from their bed, so he ventures into the night to find her. He hears music in the distance and, assuming that Izumi would follow it, he begins walking towards it. On his ascent up a hill towards the music, he suddenly feels like he's in a trance. His body is not his own, but rather a puppet that is being controlled by unseen forces. In his mind, Izumi tells him that this is not his body—his body was eaten by cats. He wards off the nasty idea and continues walking. The music stops and he winds up back at his apartment. While there, he has a faraway image of the real version of himself being eaten by cats, nothing left of him but his skeleton.