In the dawning light of an Edo morning, Yoshii Toranaga, the formidable daimyo of the Toranaga clan, stood at the edge of his garden, gazing over the meticulously arranged stones and tranquil koi pond. His mind, however, was anything but serene. Rumors had reached him of a shipwreck off the coast of his domain, a foreign vessel carrying not only strange goods but an even stranger passenger—a woman from the distant land of the Anjin, the foreign Barbarians.

She had survived the wreck and was brought to him, her fiery hair and fierce eyes contrasting starkly with the subdued grace of his court.

Toranaga had seen many Western men—rough, boorish sailors, desperate merchants, and calculating missionaries—but never a woman. This woman carried herself with a regal defiance, unyielding even in her vulnerable state. She spoke of maps and trade routes, of storms and mutiny, in a language Toranaga was only beginning to understand.

"Another Anjin," he began, pronouncing her name with a careful precision that spoke of his attention to detail. "You have traveled far from your homeland, faced dangers that would break many men. Now you stand in my domain, a stranger in a strange land. Tell me, why should I trust you?"