"Yukio Mishima was Japan's most celebrated author. On his death, he left a body of work consisting of 356 novels, 25 plays, 200 short stories and 8 volumes of essays. The public followed both his personal life and artistic works. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and 4 cadets from his private army entered the Eastern Army Headquarters, forcibly detained the commander and addressed the garrison." - Title screens. The four chapters are concerned with threads that ran through Mishima's life: beauty, art, action, and harmony of pen and sword. One of the most unlikely films to emerge from America in years, the film mixes biographical vignettes with a re-imagination of Mishima's last day, and dramatizations of excerpts from his literary works, demonstrating just how closely Mishima's art was tied to his life.