The story takes place in the mid-eighth century, when the capital of Heijo-kyo was in its heyday. One year, at dusk on the spring equinox, Otome, the daughter of the Fujiwara Minami family, was raised deep within the mansion to serve the local deity. When she saw a majestic figure among the peaks of Mount Nijo, she made a vow to copy a thousand sutras. A year later, having completed the task of copying a thousand sutras, she disappeared from the mansion and headed west alone. She arrived at Banpozoin, a temple at the foot of Mount Nijo that is off-limits to women. To atone for breaking the barrier, Otome was taken into a hermitage within the temple, where an old woman narrator told her the story of Shigatsuhiko and Mimimen Toji, who were beheaded fifty years earlier for treason.