Ryoichi Kimizuka's riveting exploration of the Japanese media's feeding frenzy focuses on a15-year-old girl forced into police protection to escape from the journalistic hordes after her brother is arrested for murder. It plays out like a propulsive edge-of-your-seat thriller that's sure to leave you breathless.

Its streets overrun with children, the village of Kaname has distinguished itself with the highest birth rate in Japan. Its citizens are excited-tomorrow, the Prime Minister arrives to formally celebrate Kaname's demographic distinction. The spirit is festive, except for one 14-year-old girl. She knows the secret of Kaname's fecundity, and she's typing up a tell-all letter to a prominent journalist, revealing the crazy, complicated tale. It all began 14 years ago... Betrayed and disgraced, big-city reporter Kazuya Mizuno is banished to a desk at Kaname's boring little town newspaper. But Kaname isn't as boring as it seems on the surface. Not with characters around like Shimeko, a girl genius with a childlike lack of propriety, and her ace fisherman/folk-singer dad. Or the overbearing and unpleasant local Shinto priest, a former Christian cultist. Or Endo, Kazuya's new colleague...