A summary of Hyôten (Freezing Point)
The young daughter of Tsujiguchi Keizô, a respected physician who runs his own hospital, is found murdered. Keizô secretly blames his wife Natsue because he suspects her of having an affair with his colleague Murai, and having been too distracted to keep proper watch over the child. Being a proud man, he does not accuse her directly, but concocts, instead, a twisted revenge against her. Pretending it is to comfort his devastated wife, Keizô arranges for them to adopt a baby girl. What he hasn’t told Natsue, is that the baby is the orphaned daughter of the murderer, a tragic day-laborer who has hanged himself while in police custody. He plans to reveal the child’s origins after Natsue has given her heart to the child-- when it will cause the greatest possible hurt.
Over the years, Keizô has a number of experiences that shake him up and cause him to examine his own inner nature with a critical eye. In the meantime, Natsue loves the child Yôko with all her heart until the day she stumbles upon the truth. Her attitude towards Yôko changes 180 degrees, and Yôko’s life turns into a nightmare. Other characters whose lives are affected by this insidious scheme of revenge include Keizô’s colleagues, their son Tôru, who develops romantic feelings towards his adopted sister, and Tôru’s college classmate Kitahara. Kitahara and Yôko are becoming close friends when Natsue, who feels attracted to Kitahara herself, reveals the truth of Yôko’s birth in an attempt to separate them. Yôko goes into shock and wanders out into a snowy forest where she attempts suicide by taking poison. The letter she leaves for her family is the core of the whole novel and the source of the title. The novel comes to a close with one more unexpected revelation concerning Yôko’s birth. She was not the daughter of Ruriko’s murderer after all. But Yôko lies in a coma and it is not entirely clear whether she will survive.
Miura wrote Zoku-Hyôten (Hyôten part 2) several years later, after she was flooded with letters from readers who wanted to know whether Yôko survived. In Zoku-Hyôten Yôko recovers and goes on to college. She now knows that she was born out of wedlock, between a woman whose husband was away fighting in the Pacific War and a medical student who dies from illness soon after the affair. The relationship between Keizô and Natsue begins a slow healing process. Yôko’s life begins to cross paths with that of her natural mother, a half-brother, and even the real daughter of Ruriko’s murderer. Yôko cannot find it in her heart to forgive her natural mother, no matter how much she pleads for forgiveness. She continues to sway between her love for Tôru and Kitahara, but finally commits herself to Kitahara. When Kitahara suggests she take a trip to see the ice floes for which the north-east coast of Hokkaido is famous, she does just that. As she watches the floes, they begin to turn a deep red from the light of the setting sun-- almost as though blood were dripping onto the frozen blocks of ice. This scene is the climax of the novel, as Yôko, thinking back to what had driven her to suicide, recalls how desperately she had longed to be forgiven for her sins by someone with the authority to do so. The blood-red ice floes symbolize Christ’s blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Yôko suddenly recognizes that there is someone with the authority to forgive and wash away the stain of sin. This recognition opens her heart and melts the frozen core inside her, and she reaches for a phone to call her natural mother.
