After Takézo (Musashi) and his friend Matahachi end up on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara, Matahachi decides to start a new life with an older woman. When Takézo returns home to tell Matahachi's fiancé, Otsu, and mother, Obaba, what happened, he ends up being hunted as a fugitive - and hung the top of a tree by an enigmatic monk