Hanpei, an orphan, never knew his father. His mother, an unpopular lady-in-waiting at the castle, died while he was still a baby. Raised by a kind farmer, Hampei is treated with contempt by everybody else. Things change when Hampei is found to have a talent for cultivating beautiful flowers, and is commissioned by the castle to create a garden. Hampei also has other talents - an ability to run as swiftly as a deer, and considerable skills in swordsmanship. Recruited to assassinate members of a reformist faction wishing to overpower the unstable lord, Hampei is stricken with grief when he finds one of the men killed is none other than his sword master. With his identity revealed to the reformists, Hampei is forced to defend himself against the odds.