A month after the Karakasa affair, the Ooku has settled back into routine, which for the noble houses means resuming the maneuvers that keep power where it is. Their problem is Fuki Tokita, a high-ranking concubine who holds Lord Tenshi's attention despite being a merchant's daughter and therefore, by their reckoning, unfit to bear an heir. When unnatural deaths begin in the inner chambers, the women there have to let the Medicine Seller back inside. This is the second film of the Mononoke trilogy.