Nui/Ryoko Yonekura is lost after the sudden death of her adoptive father Shimada Mataemon. Her own father met an untimely death when he was about to expose the corruption of the shogunate. Mataemon’s son Shimada Shinnosuke/Koji Yamamoto casts away his sword to learn medicine. They are sent off by their guardian Wakisaka Yasutada/Naoto Takenaka, a shogunate administrator for shrines and temples, and the two of them go their separate ways. Five years later, the eleventh shogun Tokugawa Ienari/Masahiko Tsugawa Masahiko is in his final years. Even though Ienari has handed the position of shogun to Ieyoshi/Tamotsu Ishibashi, he still wields the real power. To continue enjoying wealth and power even after he passes away, Ienari’s concubine Omiyo no Kata/Yuko Nakamura, who has been in his favour for a long time despite his legal wife Tadako/Kayoko Shiraishi, desires to have her own grandson Maeda Inuchiyo installed as the next shogun. Making use of his right-hand man Mizuno Minonokami/Houka Kinoshita and others, Omiyo no Kata’s backer Nakano Sekio/Jun Kunimura wheels and deals for the purpose of making Ienari write the directive that will determine the next shogun. On the other hand, Wakisaka is trying to clean up the corrupted shogunate and inner palace.
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He sends Nui into the inner palace in order to find out its actual state. The strategy succeeds. Nui, who calls herself Tomi, endears herself to Omiyo no Kata and rises in rank of room attendant for the lady-in-waiting Kikukawa/Saori Tominaga. Before long, Nui identifies liaisons between the monks of Kannouji and Sajima/Atsuko Takahata and other ladies in waiting. She is determined to expose the collusion between Kannouji, where Omiyo’s biological father is the head monk, and the unforgivable relationships between the ladies in waiting of the inner palace and the monks. Nui is undertaking this undercover investigation without regard for the danger she is putting herself in, for the sake of Shinnosuke whom she secretly loves. After political power is set right, she wants him to become a samurai again. Shinnosuke is now a back-alley doctor and is staying with a female called Toyoharu/Yui Natsukawa, who is a master of a style of Japanese joruri music and the shamisen. One day, Kikukawa’s drowned body is found in the castle town. In truth, Kikukawa is Toyoharu’s younger sister. Certain that this case is connected with the corruption in the inner palace, Toyoharu sneaks into Nakano Sekio’s residence to search for the truth. Meanwhile, Ienari collapses from a stroke. Nakano takes advantage while Ienari is weak and finally succeeds in obtaining his written directive that the next shogun will be Maeda Inuchiyo. Will the battle for succession be settled with this? And what about the outcome of the love between Nui, Shinnosuke and Toyoharu?
