Five sex workers have killed their pimp. That’s how the media presents this story—a simple, if sordid affair, leaving only one question hanging: who struck the final blow? But what seems simple from the outside is rarely so. After all, this isn’t a story about murder. This is a story about the sort of friends who would help you hide a body.

At dizzying speed, GIRLS AT THE EDGE shifts between fixed points on a jumbled and chaotic timeline, all leading and retreating from zero—the moment of the murder. As characters pass off their POV like a baton, their painful backstories and the particulars of this murder slowly come into focus like a bleak and desolate landscape. But in the foreground, the girls with the knife burst out laughing at blood splatters on frilly Lolita outfits. GIRLS AT THE EDGE explores what relationships can form in the anonymous shadows of fake names, illegal work, and the crushing judgment of society.

The Five
• Ayano—the gym rat who just wants to steer her best friend through the fire.
• Yuria—the charming provocateur hiding a conflagration of unmatched rage.
• Rinka—the honors law student hoping sex work can beat the queerness out of her.
• Makoto—the “boy” working behind the counter, never quite able to bridge that gap with the girls who have adopted him.
• Niko—the compulsive liar with hysterical fits who doesn’t know how to hurt anyone but herself.