Kanichiro Yoshimura, a samurai and a family man, can no longer feed his wife and children due to the low wages paid by his small town clan. Sadly, he packs up and leaves his loved ones for the big city where he hopes to make a better living. He joins the large and renowned samurai faction, the Shinsen-gumi, where he leads a difficult, but enriching, life during one of the most tumultuous times in Japanese history.