After the Shining Genji's death, the scene of the tale moves from the capital to Uji. Kaoru, thought to be Genji's son (in truth the son of Kashiwagi), half suspects the secret of his birth. He was born with a fragrance about his body, but his heart was strongly drawn away from the world.
Kaoru, admiring the Eighth Prince (Genji's half-brother), who devoted himself to Buddhist practice in a mountain village at Uji, began to visit Uji. One late autumn night, under the morning moon, Kaoru glimpsed the prince's two daughters, Oigimi and Nakanokimi, playing the biwa and the koto, and was captivated.
After the Eighth Prince died, Kaoru set his heart on the elder, Oigimi, but she wished to unite him with her sister Nakanokimi and to remain unmarried herself. Meanwhile Nakanokimi was won by Niou, Kaoru's close friend and Genji's grandson. But because of his rank, Niou could rarely visit Uji. Oigimi grieved over her sister's unhappiness, and, unable to trust men, fell ill and died.
After Kaoru lost Oigimi, there appeared before him Ukifune, Oigimi's half-sister, who closely resembled her. Kaoru settled Ukifune at Uji, but Niou too approached her, crossed the Uji River in the snow in a small boat, and spent time alone with her in a house on the far bank. "The color of the little orange-tree island will not change, but this drifting boat (ukifune) knows not where it goes." Torn between the two men, Ukifune vanished into the dark of night, meaning to throw herself into the rushing Uji River.
In fact Ukifune had been rescued by the Bishop of Yokawa and had taken holy orders in a mountain village at Ono. When Kaoru learned of it, he had a letter delivered, but Ukifune said, "You must have mistaken me for someone else," and would not see him. There the tale quietly closes. At the foot of the Uji Bridge, a statue of Murasaki Shikibu stands today.