The wind swirls up dust in a desert landscape. The picture is followed by images of clouds racing over the skyline of a city, of reflections on an expanse of water, of waves breaking over an embankment and of row upon row of burning candles.
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities.
A woman calling herself Princess Oryu enters the woman's prison. She is Kasumi, the daughter of the famous magistrate, Ooka Echizen, who slowly after hearing each of the prisoner's stories begins to realize the mystery that lies behind what it could be a big conspiracy.