Honoo no Mirage is a complexly-plotted novel which incorporates a large number of elements, including romantic melodrama, historical politics and supernatural fantasy. Japanese history predominates the heavily structured story-line, which mainly involves the continued aggression between power-wielding guardians ('possessors'), and the denizens of a 'feudal underworld'- a group of restless souls belonging to long-dead samurai from the warring states period who are attempting to re-ignite those age-old wars in present-day Japan.