Former lovers meet in San Francisco, far from their native Japan - what unites them except sad memories, and what does a thermos have to do with it? After a failed putsch, an officer commits hara-kiri in front of his young wife. Four women, on one single night of the year, must cross seven bridges without uttering a word to make their wishes come true - a simple task, but not everyone will be able to reach the end of the journey. The family is trying to survive what is impossible to survive - the death of two children, fear for the remaining ones. A woman loses a pearl on her birthday, and such a trifle changes the configurations of friendship and enmity between old acquaintances beyond recognition. A dancer who suddenly appears at an antique dealer's shop disrupts the sale of an old and very valuable wardrobe - I wonder why she needs a wardrobe? works of the widest range and variety of genres (novels, plays, short stories, essays), and a stunning biography (obsession with bodybuilding, far-right political views, hara-kiri after an unsuccessful attempt at a monarchical coup). Mishima is an infinitely insightful and ruthless observer, and his collection of short stories, Death in Midsummer, is an unpredictable, sometimes shocking kaleidoscope of cruelty and passion, arrogance and vulnerability, fear and love, spiritual darkness and elusive light. Half the stories and the play in this collection are published in Russian for the first time.