: Ancient Japan. The imperial son, enjoying the luxury and admiration of the world, does not tire of embarking on new love adventures.

The novel covers a time period of several decades. The protagonist is the brilliant Genji, one of the imperial sons, has all sorts of virtues, a rare external beauty and extraordinary abilities, which causes universal admiration. His career at the Court is developing successfully, he lives in luxury. Genji is incredibly in love, he has a huge number of lovers, the young man takes care of all and does not forget anyone. As perfection, he considers the princess from the Pavilion of Wisteria, the concubine of his father. The lady falls under the charm of Genji and enters into a relationship with him. After some time, a boy is born, the future emperor. Noticing the similarity of the child with Genji, the lady is horrified by what she did and breaks up a love relationship with a secret admirer.

After some time in the mountains, Genji meets a ten-year-old girl Murasaki. She reminds him very much of the lady from the Wisteria Pavilion, and the young man takes her to his upbringing with the intention of making him his wife when the girl grows up. Meanwhile, Genji's first wife dies during childbirth. He has a son, Yugiri. The cause of the death of his wife becomes Rokujo-no Miyasudokoro, one of Genji's lovers.Her offended spirit moved into his wife and tormented her until his death.

Genji marries Murasaki. However, he falls into disgrace of the current family clan in power. The initiator of this is one of the concubines of his father, who received the status of the Sovereign mother. The exile lives on the seashore. There he has a new lover, Lady Akashi. After pardon and return of Genji to the capital, a girl is born at Akashi. After a while, the lady and daughter move to him.

Genji's son Yugiri finally marries the daughter of a minister, a friend of Genji. Yugiri has another lover. From these unions, he gives birth to twelve children: eight from his wife, four from his beloved. The daughter of Genji Akashi first becomes the concubine of the current emperor, and then - the empress.

Genji is already over forty. He worships Madame Murasaki, considering her the perfect wife. However, the Emperor, who had retired, who had taken tonsure, asked his brother to take his daughter, the Third Princess, under his guardianship. Genji agrees, but Murasaki, despite the high rank of the rival, still occupies a major place in the life of the spouse. The princess becomes the object of passion for Kashiwagi, the son of a friend of Genji. After a while, she gives birth to a boy, Kaoru, and Genji realizes whose son it is. Both Kashiwagi and the new wife of Genji are tormented by repentance: the young man soon dies, and the princess takes the tonsure.

The demise of Murasaki becomes a heavy blow to Genji. She, like her first wife, was tormented by the evil spirit of the deceased Rokujo-no miyasudokoro.The daughter of Miyasudokoro, the previous empress, is thinking about how to calm her mother’s soul with prayers. Some time after the death of his wife, Genji himself takes a tonsure.

Further, the descendants of Genji are already narrated (it is known that he died, but a separate chapter is not devoted to this). The main characters are Kaoru and Prince Nyou, the grandson of Genji, the son of Empress Akashi. Kaoru has been serious since his youth, he has practically no fleeting ties with women, he often thinks of monasticism. Niou, on the contrary, has the glory of anemone; women from maidservants to noble persons become his passions. Both young men are universally admired, all influential families want to intermarry with them.

Kaoru draws close to Genji’s brother, the Eighth Prince, who, not accepting tonsure, devoted himself to serving the Buddha in the world. At the same time, the young man learns that his own father is not Genji, but Kashiwagi. The two daughters of the "monk in the world" are interested in Kaoru and Niou. The first helps after the death of the Eighth Prince to arrange the marriage of Niou with her youngest daughter. Kaoru himself is in love with the elder. But the girl never gives him her consent to marriage. Soon she is dying.

Kaoru cruelly repents of losing his younger sister to the prince (the eldest wanted Kaoru to secure her sister's future, so she refused him). However, he soon learns about the existence of the third daughter of the Eighth Prince from another woman - Ukifune. Kaoru settled her in the mountains and intended to transfer to the capital as his wife. But having learned about the whereabouts of the beautiful girl, whom he saw only once, Prince Niou begins to constantly visit her.Ukifune is fascinated by him, but repents of betraying Kaoru - he is in no way inferior to the prince. She considers suicide as the only way out. The spirit takes hold of the girl, the monks find her in a strange garden and begin to take care of her. Ukifune takes tonsure and lives with them. Soon Kaoru learns about this: the beloved is alive and has become a nun. After the news of the betrayal of a friend who visited Ukifune and the alleged death of a girl for a young man, this was another blow. But is it worth it now to meet her? ..

The finale of the novel remains open.