Towards the end of the Edo period, Shozaburo Danno receives an order from Nakane, the prime minister at the han. The order is to keep watch over Akiya Toda, who has been in confinement for killing a boy servant who had an affair with his concubine 7 years ago. Akiya Toda is expected to commit hara-kiri within 3 years. In the meantime, Akiya Toda works on an order from the previous daimyo to write the daimyo‘s family tree into a book.