A young boy discovers the existence of a group called the Mooncussers - a gang of pirates that work at night and sends out false homing signals to ships at sea.
When a worker digging up a rose bed in the garden of a rich, influential factory owner uncovers a skeleton, suspicion spreads: Is the man who is so respected in the town possibly a murderer?
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual.
Jean Wells believes she kills a man during a hit-and-run one evening. A man named Joe appears and, in exchange for keeping silent about the murder, blackmails Wells.