After a posting to the northern provinces, Akitada hurries to the deathbed of his mother in the capital. On the road, he spends the night in a monastery where he sees a painted hell screen. The realistic depictions of tortured men, women, and children haunt his dreams until he wakes to a scream. At home, he finds his mother sick and vindictive, and his sisters troubled by personal dilemmas. He is asked to clear his brother-in-law’s name in a theft, and his younger sister’s lover of a murder charge. The scream in monastery becomes a clue in the murder case, and the hell screen sends him on an investigation of unspeakable crimes in the city. The dangers lurking there will strike very close to home.