On the evening of November 25th 1988 Junko Furuta is cycling home from her part time job when she is suddenly attacked. Her would-be saviour Hiroshi Miyano, is far from the white-knight he appears to be. Junko soon finds out her resucer is an infamous member of the Yakuza, and together with his gang they subject her to 44 days of pain and torture that ultimately ends with Junko dead and Japan asking "how could we let this happen?"