At the dawn of the Shogun era two mighty warrior clans, the Minamoto and the Taira, struggle for power under the Cloistered Emperor. The Taira are in uneasy control, but the three Minamoto sons, separated and exiled at birth, are secretly reuniting to conquer them and avenge their father's bloody death. It is the youngest, Yoshitsune, who is deemed most worthy of possessing the family heirloom, the Sword of Hachiman, the War God. He is initiated into love and espionage in the bedchamber of a young Taira noblewoman and tested in the ferocious hand-to-hand combat that is his birthright before winning a faithful retainer, the fierce, hard-drinking monk Benkei. We follow Yoshitsune behind the scenes of the rarefied Cloister Court, where two extraordinary women enter his life "