In the slums of shintokyo, where the novel takes place, a woman named Buttface tries to scare off a group of slumlords who want to buy up the land where the Toon Church is located. She tells the men that the food they eat is for the "young and the ill" and that they are "abusing the elderly" by making them work for no pay. The men, however, do not understand why the women are trying to protect the church, and they attack her.