In the Edo era during the reign of the third shogun, a mysterious smallpox epidemic affects males only, causing the number of males to plummet to one-fourth of the population. The roles of males and females are reversed. Women run businesses and politics. A young girl takes the seat as the heir of the shogunate and becomes first female shogun. She is Tokugawa Iemitsu (Tabe Mikako). When Iemitsu turns 16, the pure-hearted Madenokoji Arikoto (Sakai Masato), who heads a temple, is threatened and forced to return to secular life. Together with his disciple Gyokuei (Tanaka Koki), he becomes one of the 3,000 handsome concubines that wait on the shogun in the inner palace.