This is a marvelous example of how families take many forms, that acts of kindness along with a disregard for convention can create spaces of love and acceptance regardless of who makes up the unit we call family. Eriko's former life as Yuichi's father (when married to Yuichi's now deceased mother) is given matter-of-fact treatment early in the story, as is her change from man to woman ("Because she hates to do things halfway, she had everything done, from her face to her whatever, and with the money she had left over she bought that nightclub. She raised me a woman alone, as it were."). Instead, the novella focuses on relationships that transcend gender and traditional family ties.