On rainy mornings, Takao can never bring himself to go to school—instead, he spends that time at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen gardens and finds a brief reprieve from everything else in his life among the trees and flowers. And on one of those mornings, he discovers a mysterious woman named Yukino in his haven, skipping work, and an unlikely friendship blooms between them. But though these two are the center of this story, they are far from the only ones trying to find their way in life.

Shousetsu Kotonoha no Niwa was serialized in the September 2013 to April 2014 issues of Da Vinci with illustrations by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya. The volume release includes extra chapters, but does not include the illustrations. The novel was published in English as The Garden of Words by Yen Press under the Yen On imprint on August 25, 2020.