Book Two focuses primarily on the story of the Kikai-ga-shima exiles, but it includes other banishments as well. In general, the world is falling apart because of Kiyomori's temper and greed: he cannot forgive the Shishi-ga-tani conspirators and even considers arresting Go-Shirakawa. He is only held back by being shamed by Shigemori, his honorable and compassionate son. He orders executions and exiles of many of the conspirators, and goes so far as to have Narichika executed. Shunkan, Yasuyori, and Naritsune are exiled to Kikai-ga-shima, an alien and frightening land, but Yasuyori and Naritsune re-imagine it as the Kumano shrine complex. They compose prayers and vows to the gods, and are eventually rewarded when a stupa they inscribe with a poem and cast afloat makes its way to Itsukushima shrine, the tutelary shrine of the Taira. The book begins with a series of exiles, recounts a number of inauspicious events (including the burning of Zenkōji temple and the fall into ruin of the Buddhist establishment on Mt. Hiei, at the northeast corner of the capital). It ends, however, with the hope that Kiyomori will show compassion to the Kikai-ga-shima exiles.