The horror of the cover of this
novel, clad in a morphed face of a Caucasian woman hides much deeper and more
complex horrors within the book: Parasite Eve.
Upon the
sudden death of Toshiaki's wife, Kiyomi, he begins to for a way for part of her
to remain alive. Promising her kidney to
a dying girl's family in exchange for a liver from Kiyomi's corpse, he sets his
expertise in
mitochondria to work by culturing her liver and allowing her to
remain 'alive'. Unfortunately for him, Kiyomi's
death was planned by the mitochondria within her cells and these sentient
mitochondria are rapidly taking over Mariko's body through her received kidney
and thriving in Toshiaki's cell
cultures.
A twisted adventure ensues in which the sentient mitochondria, known as
Eve, thrive to create their ultimate daughter and liberate mitochondria
throughout the human race, thus annihilating it. Toshiaki is forced to come to his senses
after his lab assistant is possessed by the mitochondria and nearly burned
alive in the process; meanwhile, Eve has formed a humanoid body from the cell cultures
and is also changing Mariko's body to be suitable for carrying the new Eve to
term. Toshiaki encounters Eve, and after
a physical and sexual assault, races to the hospital in which Mariko is housed
to stop Eve from creating the child. She
is far too powerful, however, and the child is born from Mariko’s womb as the
first Eve disintegrates on the floor, having lost control of her humanoid
form. After the new Eve flings the
dissenting humans about like toys, Toshiaki appeals to her as her father and
she merges with him, lost without her mother. They are both ultimately destroyed by the
merging of their cells and combining of their mitochondria as his rebel against
hers.