Toru finds himself reminiscing about a single day spent on a meadow with his first love, Naoko, years earlier, and about a favorite song of hers, "Norwegian Wood". The time was 1969 and the bittersweet memory propels him into meditation on that time and his lost love. This heartfelt and compelling novel is the result of that meditation.

Both Toru and Naoko were indelibly marked when their best friend and Naoko's lover inexplicably committed suicide. Naoko was left with a fragile equilibrium, one that made her ill-suited to life in the modern world. And Toru, who also had been deeply touched by this loss, was rendered emotionally distant, able to connect only with his compatriot in suffering, Naoko.

As the depth of her suffering became apparent to Toru, he tried desperately to shelter her from her problems, but increasingly she retreated to the shelter of a distant sanitarium that allowed her sufficient peace to continue functioning. Toru, meanwhile, is bereft, having retreated into his studies at college. His only friend is an equally aloof fellow college student whose self-involvement and marked promiscuity form a fine juxtaposition to our narrator's steadfast dedication to Naoko. As Toru's love for Naoko grows, her distance also seems to grow until the rift between proves an insurmountable barrier to them both. In the end, he learnsperhaps the most difficult lesson of youth -- how to say goodbye.

This touching remembrance of lost youth, also proves to be a remarkable tale of friendship, love, and the legacy of loss.