When a timber bid for the reconstruction of Nikko Toshogu Shrine was being contested between two of Edo's leading timber wholesalers, Omiya and Naniwaya, the Minamimachi Magistrate's Office Yoriki and the owner of Omiya were killed one after the other. Soon after, Kokichi, the owner of the Night Cry Soba Shop, was arrested by the Minamimachi Magistrate's Yoriki as the culprit behind Omiya's murder, and was tortured to force a confession. Seeing his sister Okayo and the people of the tenement house howling in their belief in her innocence, the Kitamachi Magistrate, Toyama Kinshiro, vowed to be an ally of the weak townspeople.