Traveling in the guise of an ordinary samurai, Yamabuki, not-yet seventeen and the only surviving daughter of a legendary warlord, continues her mission to bring important secret dispatches to the capital. Having survived her first sword battle and killed a would-be assassin and a sword master, Yamabuki gets waylaid in a lawless town, her path blocked by unseasonable snows, and her life at risk from the corrupt sakimori.

Meanwhile, Saburo, a master assassin hired by rival factions in her home province, is hot on her trail. Motivated by not just money but personal vengeance, the ninja intends to make sure she never reaches her destination alive.

But all is not darkness. Yamabuki also encounters the young warlord Yoshinaka, handsome and charismatic, who vows to reclaim his birthright from his treacherous uncle. Drawn to him as a kindred soul, Yamabuki starts to open her heart. But does she want to get entangled in his ambitious plans to conquer and rule over the entire empire?

12th-century Japan, in all its beauty and brutality, comes alive in this second book of Sword of the Taka Samurai.