The story is told primarily in first-person narrative by Otori Takeo. He was born as Tomasu in Mino, a small village that houses amongst its people, religious outcasts referred to as the "Hidden". The Hidden are persecuted throughout the Three Countries for their beliefs, and in the opening chapter Mino is destroyed by the warriors of Iida Sadamu, Lord of the Tohan Clan. Takeo is rescued by Otori Shigeru, a young Lord of the Otori Clan which has a long-standing rivalry with the Tohan, and led back to the Otori stronghold of Hagi. There, Shigeru adopts Takeo and begins to instruct him in the ways of a warrior.