The final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the capital of Edo (present-day Tokyo). Uncomfortable with society's expectations of her gender, Suzu Kanchiku becomes the only woman in a sword training school and devotes herself tirelessly to her art until she can even defeat men. Outside the confines of the dojo, she faces other challenges such as samurai who seek to woo her, and she carves out her own path as she realizes what it means to "live as a woman" in her day and age.

Through the lives of female martial arts masters, prostitutes, shop clerks, Buddhist nuns and swords-for-hire, Hinatsuba conveys the strength, resilience and kindness of the various women who lived in Edo at the end of the mid 19th century.