The war is over. Japan is defeated. As his country rebuilds, a young man must fight disease and rebuild his life. He will start at a peculiar sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, and where he is surrounded by an odd assortment of patients and caregivers.

Osamu Dazai was a leading Japanese modern fiction writer who wrote in the genre of the "I" novel. His work reflected his troubled life, but Pandora's Box is one of his optimistic novels.