Female shogun Iemitsu and her lover, Arikoto, try to conceive a male child in a land where much of the male population has died. After some time with no success, they decide they must betray their love for their country's sake.
Hoping to discover why female lords must take on male names, Yoshimune digs through the archives of the last eighty years and finds the rise of the Redface Pox, as well as the death of the last male shogun.