Kiba is back again, but this time he has fallen from grace and sent to prison for all the violent acts he has committed. Once he's out, he begins working as a bodyguard in a club that is crawling with gangsters.
Can a sinful man change and find peace? It's unlikely in gang-plagued Japan. Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter (and hired sword), goes straight after protecting a woman in distress: they marry, have a son, and Jokichi pursues his father's craft. After three years, the gangs he embarrassed when he saved his wife find the family and leave Jokichi in grief, vowing revenge. To parry his terrible swift sword, rival gangs join forces, hiring a prostitute to pose as a woman needing help and breaking the code of honor to double cross the drifter. He finds unlikely allies: a thief who aids him for fun and a one-eyed swordsman who may be Jokichi's equal in skill and honor.
떠돌이 무사 칸베이는 길 가던 여자들을 겁탈하려다 위기에 처한 동료들을 구하기 위해 살인을 하게 된다. 그는 어린 아들을 유모차에 태우고 방랑하는 자객 오가미 잇토와 우연히 만나 결투를 신청하지만 오가미로부터 진정한 무사를 살려두고 싶다는 말을 듣는다. 오가미는 어느날, 여관에서 유곽에 팔려가던 중 겁탈하려는 중개인을 죽이고 자신의 방으로 도망온 소녀 오마츠를 구해주기 위해 망팔자들에게 끝까지 저항한다. 망팔자의 우두머리로 가케가와번의 필두 가로였던 미우라 다케와키의 딸 토리조는 오가미가 범상치 않은 무사임을 직감하고, 번을 팔아 권력을 손에 넣은 사와타리 겐바에게 청부살인을 의뢰한다. 한편 로쥬 이타쿠라 나이젠노쇼를 꼬드겨 권력을 손에 쥔 사와타리는 다시 로쥬를 살해하려 오가미에서 살인을 청부하나 거절당하자 오가미를 죽이기 위해 대규모의 군사를 동원한다. 그러나 오가미는 혼자서 군사 수백명의 활과 총을 물리친다.
The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi's father refuses to give in to his son's request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-hearted merchant and his family. As tragedy strikes and the suffering of the young boy increases, he begins to look for some way out of his bleak situation.
