The story of three Edo assassins, devil-tattooed Dr. Baian Fujieda is the preeminant among them, the other two include a ronin who works largely in the open & will kill his commission in a fair fight, and Otowaya, boss of assassins who becomes personally involved rather than delegating when the assassin's code has been breached. They live by an assassins' code that includes such regulations as - Kill only those who are harmful to people or society - if an assassin is hired & acts under false or misleading conditions, avenge the guild by killing the client. This group of assassins loves to believe they never kill the innocent, though just under the surface they realize that they are themselves the sorts of men their code would find worthy of death.