As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-20th century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult, Amane and her husband, Saku, decide to live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?

As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.

Winner of Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN is the incomparable story of Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old Tokyo resident who has been working at the Hiiromachi “Smile Mart” for the past 18 years. Keiko has never fit in --- neither in her family nor in school --- but in her convenience store, she is able to find peace and purpose with rules clearly delineated by the store’s manual, and copying her colleagues’ dress, mannerisms and speech. She plays the part of a “normal person” excellently --- more or less. Keiko is very happy, but those close to her pressure her to find a husband and a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.