The solemn celebration is suddenly interrupted and Sano Ishiro is recalled to the court right from the banquet table. The shogun's favorite concubine is poisoned under not just mysterious, but scandalously obscene circumstances. Rumors are creeping around the palace - sometimes ridiculous, sometimes cynical... Rumor accuses in the death of the beauty and her many admirers, and the all-powerful favorites of the shogun, and his jealous mistresses...Sano begins an investigation and understands that the mysterious killer, it seems, will strike the next blow on the shogun himself!