Senior Secretary Sugawara Akitada is haunted by the promise he made a dying friend on a faraway island. Haseo, unjustly condemned for a terrible crime, ended his life in exile, leaving his family scattered and all proof of his existence destroyed.
In the capital, where small pox rages, Akitada attempts to clear his friend’s name while Tora, his faithful retainer, is arrested for the murder of a blind street singer, and Akitada’s wife pleads with him to take his family to safety. The story of Haseo emerges gradually, at once terrible and tragic, thrusting Akitada into a romantic entanglement and causing him deep pain.