En 1861 Japon se ha visto forzado a abrir las puertas a Occidente, con el consecuente choque entre ambas culturas. En el puerto de Edo se reunen barzos extranjeros en busca de oportunidades en esas tierras; uno de ellos transporta a un grupo de americanos cuyo objetivo es llevar la palabra de Dios al pueblo nipon. Para dos de estos misioneros, sin embargo, el viaje supone algo mas: la joven Emily Gibson desea dejar atras un pasado incomodo e iniciar una nueva vida; Matthew Stark tiene algo que ocultar bajo su pacifica apariencia. El destino de ambos se cruza con el de Genji, un joven samurai heredero del clan Akaoka. Su amistad con los foraneos despierta el recelo de otros clanes, que declararan la guerra abierta a Genji. Ayudado por sus dos nuevos amigos y su amante, la geisha Heiko, este defendera su posicion sorteando intrigas y traiciones. / In the year 1311, in the highest tower of Cloud of Sparrows Castle, a beautiful woman sits by the window, watching as enemies gather below and fires spread through the night. As she calmly awaits her fate, she begins to write, carefully setting down on a scroll the secret history of the Okumichi clanof the gift of prophecy they share and the extraordinary destiny that awaits them. For six centuries, these remarkable writings lay hiddenuntil they are uncovered by an American woman, a missionary named Emily Gibson, who arrived in Edo harbor in 1861, in flight from a tragic past. Soon an extraordinary man would enter her life: Lord Genji of the Okumichi clan, a nobleman with a gift of prophecy who must defend his embattled familyand confront forbidden feelings for an outsider in his midst. Emily, too, soon finds herself at a turning point; courted by two westerners, she knows her heart belongs to the one man she cannot have. But Emily has found a mission of her own: translating Genjis ancestral history, losing herself in an epic tale of heroism and forbidden love.