Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, Komako is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a life of servitude and seclusion that is alien to Shimamura, and their love offers no freedom to either of them. <i>Snow Country</i> is both delicate and subtle, reflecting in Kawabata�s exact, lyrical writing the unspoken love and the understated passion of the young Japanese couple.