An infant is abandoned at Ikumatsu's geisha house. This child belongs to a former geisha called Ikuhama who had worked there some five years earlier and who had subsequently eloped and disappeared from the scene. Although Ikumatsu is at first rather irritated by Ikuhama's supposed act of irresponsibility, she gradually develops a soft spot for the infant and begins to dote on him. Then three samurai men turn up at the geisha house, demanding to take the baby with them. The men claim that the infant belongs to an upper vassal clan of the shogun. But a suspicious Ikumatsu turns them down and chases them out. When Kurata tracks down Ikuhama and hears her story, she reveals that the infant is caught up in a power struggle of succession and that his life is in danger.