In the Taisho era, a struggling young painter named Kenzan cannot keep a model. His naturally fierce and intimidating glare terrifies every woman he hires, so he has no one to pose for the bijin-ga, or beautiful-woman paintings, he dreams of creating. One rainy day he finds a stunningly beautiful person collapsed on the roadside. He takes the stranger, who calls herself Hanae, into his home to tend to her injuries, only to discover that Hanae is actually a boy wearing women's clothing. Far from being frightened by Kenzan's harsh gaze, Hanae is drawn to it, and Kenzan is captivated by Hanae's features. For the first time, Kenzan has a subject who fits his artistic ideal, and the two begin living together under the arrangement that Hanae will model for him.

The story follows their deepening relationship as Kenzan struggles to balance his professional ambitions with his growing personal attachment to Hanae. Their isolated domestic life is disrupted when Kenzan's flashy and successful rival from art school reappears, and later when Hanae's past is exposed. Hanae had previously worked as a male prostitute in a brothel where male cross-dressers entertained male clients, and an old patron named Shigemi tracks him down. Fearing that Kenzan will reject the real him, Hanae pushes for physical intimacy while also preparing for the worst. But when the patron publicly reveals Hanae's history, Kenzan does not recoil; instead, he accepts everything and confesses his long-hidden romantic feelings. The two finally become physically intimate.

The exposure costs Kenzan his publisher assignments, and the couple falls into financial hardship. Stripped of the external validation of artistic success and social acceptance, they must rely on each other. Together, they search for a kind of love that exists beyond conventional categories of gender and propriety, ultimately finding that bond on their own terms.