Japan, 1701. Awakening from a black unconsciousness, a terrified woman is brutally attacked amid a swirling storm of clouds. Meanwhile, at Edo Castle, the shogun has staged an elaborate martial arts tournament that forces samurai detective Chamberlain Sano Ichiro and his former rival, Yanagisawa, to work together. Since his return from exile, Yanagisawa has been uncharacteristically cooperative, but Sano is deeply suspicious of his true motives.Then, just as Yanagisawa's plotting begins to come to light, Sano's uncle, who heads a clan that disowned Sano's mother years ago, comes to him for help. Sano's long lost cousin, Chiyo, has disappeared, and his uncle begs Sano and his wife, Reiko - who once suffered through the kidnapping of their own son - to put the past behind them in order to find her before it is too late. Unable to ignore his cousin's plight, Sano undertakes a desperate search, only to find that two other women have vanished in similar circumstances, and that powerful forces are massing to protect their abductors. Read Less