Eiri Kurahashi is an art school student, with a job at a local antique store. It's there that he develops a strange obsession. He finds himself entranced by a portrait of a Victorian-era girl named Cossette. It's a portrait with quite the strange history--everyone who has owned it has been murdered in a bizarre fashion. But the story runs much deeper than that. Cossette was savagely murdered by her lover, who also happens to be the artist who painted the portrait...the mystery deepens to depths unthinkable when the new owner of the portrait nearly kills himself,and Eiri decides to get involved. That's when Cossette begins speaking to him and they head down the rabbit hole...