Hamakichi begins to build a peaceful life, but a chance meeting with young widow Otoki and her son brings him up against a vicious gang of smugglers whose murderous leader is obsessed with Otoki.
Hamakichi's former Constabulary mentor is now dying of TB and his daughter wants to reconcile him and his former wife before it's too late, but the gambling gang the wife now works for may make that impossible.
Constable Tomo asks for Hamakichi's help in solving a series of murders. A flower hairpin left on the bodies seems to be the only clue, but how does this connect the killings and where does a formerly-popular courtesan fit in to the story?
A member of the vicious "Chain Gang" is brutally killed, and the gang wants revenge. The killer's identity may lie in both Edo and a mountain hot-springs town, but can Hamakichi and Tomo find him before the gang does?
Hamakichi meets a little orphan girl whom a member of a once-famous robbery gang has befriended, but when it looks like the gang will finally be captured Hamakichi must make both a heart-wrenching decision and a solemn promise.
A message from a dying former thief gives Hamakichi hope to be reunited with his lost daughter, but a killer is after the gold the thief stole and hid years ago, and won't hesitate to kill anyone in his way...including Hamakichi.
