The torso of a headless and limbless body is found half-buried by a riverbank. The remains belong to Yaeko Miyagawa, a middle-aged mother. Following an investigation and trial, her daughter, Hikari Miyagawa, confesses to the murder. For many years, Hikari had been subjected to relentless physical and emotional abuse by her mother, an ordeal centered entirely on her failure to gain admission to a top medical school and become a doctor. Even after nine years of futile applications and failed entrance exams, Yaeko refused to free her daughter from this virtual prison. The narrative, based on a true story, explores Hikari's experiences leading up to the fatal stabbing that ended her mother's life, as well as the aftermath of this tragic event. The story is set in contemporary Japan, primarily within the claustrophobic confines of the Miyagawa home, where a mother's obsessive expectations transform a familial bond into a psychological trap. Hikari begins as a shattered young woman whose sense of self has been eroded by a decade of torment, eventually leading her to commit a desperate act of violence. Yaeko is portrayed not merely as a villain but as a mother whose love has warped into a destructive need for control, her identity so bound to her daughter's academic success that she ignores all other aspects of Hikari's humanity. The notable narrative arcs follow the linear decline of the family dynamic, starting from Hikari's first failed exam and the subsequent tightening of her mother's grip. It traces the escalation of abuse as the years of failure mount, the psychological breaking point that leads to the murder, and finally the legal proceedings and Hikari's reckoning with the permanence of her actions in the wake of her confession.