"The Fountains in the Rain" was first published in English in a 1989 in a collection of seven of his short stories, Acts of Worship. One often sees in the work of Mishima the depiction of acts of cruelty done for no reason than the the pleasure it may bring. The acts are most of done, it seems, by young men who have begun for the first time to discover the world is not perfect. A story about first love.