A photograh, Kariya, obsessed by his time in Vietnam during the war meets an actress Maeko that is obsessed by the photo, selfie we would say today, taken by a dying actress. Do they love each other? not sure but they are hanted by each other. The actress wants a picture of her from this photograph because she's seen an amazing war photo from him, and the photograph is attracted, frightened by this strange surrealist talented beautiful scary women. The story is a succession of chapter presenting the view from the different charater perspective, so often the same sentences appear, either spoken by its main character or related by an other. It's kind of unusual but very common in real life when you recall a scene and rewind things that were said. Anyway, there is some suspense, the two main characters are definitely a bit crazy. Is this real or just a dream ? Orchidees play a big role too. The story takes you from New York to Singapore Raffles Hotel then Malaysia jungle, with japanese characters mainly, including the young Takeo tourist guide and his girlfriend Matt, danser. Murakami produced a movie at the same time, same title that I am curious to see now.