Mugen and Jin are both highly skilled samurai who are, in almost every respect, complete opposites. But they are thrown together when they agree to accompany Fuu, a young waitress from a teahouse, on her journey to find the "samurai who smells of sunflowers," in exchange for her help in escaping a public execution. In a story about nineteenth-century Japan mixed with modern references and hip-hop, the three travelers encounter a wide range of characters and circumstances as they search for answers to their own mysterious pasts.