Breaking into his 20th year of award-winning anthropomorphic samurai adventures, master storyteller Stan Sakai opens this collection with a deadly ambush on the fugitive Lone Goat Assassin and his child, Gorogoro. Lone Goat is victorious, but wounded - and his son is too young to help. Unable to seek proper medical attention, Lone Goat collapses in an abandoned house. What he needs is a knowledgeable ronin, and soon! Elsewhere, Usagi is in a desperate search for his young companion, Jotaro, who has eluded murderous kidnappers. His is a panic that only rises out of fatherly love, though he has kept the secret of Jotaro"s parentage from the boy throughout their travels together. If they are able to continue on to Kitanoji Temple, will the rabbit samurai confess before they part ways?