14-year-old Sasanoyou Aosagi comes from a family of opium farmers on the impoverished island of Nagekomi. After years of blight and never-ending raids by pirates, her family finally decided to sell their most useless daughter to the brothels. "Useless" — they called her — because she would often run off to the harbormaster's office to read books instead of laboring in the poppy fields like her diligent brothers and sisters.

"Useless", however, is a matter of perspective. Although Aosagi might be plain, dull, and unattractive like dried table salt, the Madam of a particularly shady pleasure house is interested in hiring a cheap yet literate peasant girl. The red light district of Nagekomi is a garden of fraud and false flowers, and who can think of a better use of a calligraphy pen than to embellish a few love letters with lies?

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This novel is R-15 with mature themes. Despite the setting, no sexual content directly occurs with the protagonist (she is obviously underage), although the threat or potential risk of future prostitution is an element of the plot. Readers should be advised about the uncomfortable subject matter.