Prostitutes in burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-WWII Japan peddle their flesh and save one-third of their money for a proposed dancehall to be named Paradise. The hookers live in a bombed-out building, but they accept the precarious situation with typical resolve.
Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.
The story is about a Journalist who becomes infected with a Japanese demon. The demon incubates in the mans stomach before Violently tearing its way up and out through the Journalists mouth (Complete with mouth splitting wide open). As soon as the Demon is "born" it is snatched away by a mysterious stranger. The Journalist (Yes, somehow he survived) soon discovers that the man who grabbed up the demon is in fact a former infectee who has developed a taste for the little demons, In fact they taste so good that when a person eats their flesh they then instantly become addicted to it.
A photographer for a weekly magazine becomes obsessed with Nami, a woman he first saw getting brutally raped in an underground porn video. After tracking her down, he begins an affair with her, initially unaware that she is also in an abusive relationship with Muraki, the man responsible for the video that started it all.