When beautiful straight-A high school student Kanako goes missing, her mother asks ex-husband Akikazu — a drifting, irresponsible former cop — to find their daughter. He embarks on a desperate search in the hope of reuniting his family by any means necessary. But as his investigation progresses, Akikazu starts to discover the darkness that lies behind his daughter’s impeccable façade. Clue by clue, revelation by revelation, he starts his descent into the hellish underworld of Kanako’s secret life…

[Akio Fukamachi’s 2004 mystery novel “Hateshinaki Kawaki” sold over 360,000 copies, but was considered too lurid for a mainstream film adaptation; Tetsuya Nakashima read it and began writing his own screen treatment, which became the script for “Kawaki.”]