Delving into the past can be as dangerous as interfering in someone else's business. Akitada unravels the dark secrets of a poet who drowned six months earlier in a remote mountain region. Was his death an accident or murder? His wife, an imperial princess, demands an investigation and the prime minister issues an order. As Akitada probes into the victim's final days, his friend Tora becomes entangled in a shopkeeper's murder and uncovers the corruption and brutality of the capital police. Both men will unleash savage retaliation and nearly lose their lives as they search for answers.