One night, a samurai Nakano Kiyoshige (Itao Itsuji) visits Nikkei (Tanaka Yoji), the chief priest of Chisenin, in the middle of heavy snowfall. He entrusts a baby and a large sum of money to Nikkei and asks him to raise the child. 14 years later, Omiyo (Sawajiri Erika) has grown up to be an outstanding beauty. She visits the Nakano residence thinking that Kiyoshige, who secretly met Nikkei, is her father. However, she hears from him that she is the child of the 10th Tokugawa shogun Ieharu and his concubine Omino. Moreover, Ieharu was poisoned and killed by Ienari’s (Narimiya Hiroki) faction which plotted to make him the shogun. It is also a known fact that Omino died after giving birth to Omiyo. Omiyo cries as she listens to the story and asks to enter the inner palace in order to avenge her parents. She gets inside through a good word put in by Kiyoshige, who is Ienari’s close aide, and immediately catches the attention of Ienari with the help of the high-ranking Osaki no Tsubone (Asano Yuko). Looking at Omiyo, the female servants Kuzuoka (Washio Machiko), Yoshino (Yamaguchi Kaori) and Urao (Kubota Maki) feel alarm. At that moment in the inner palace, the concubine Oraku (Asai Erina) is in favour with Ienari. But after she gives birth to his heir, he completely loses interest and ignores her,...
