After the deaths of her husband and children to illness, Summer Steadman has no desire to continue on to where she and her husband had planned to settle, so she takes a job in a small Mennonite community in order to be close to the graves of her family.

After finding a baby on her doorstep, Beatrix Potter gives the child to Captain Miles Woodcock and his sister, Dimity, and sets out to uncover where the orphan came from.

When a possible weakness in Shishio's body reveals itself to Kenshin when he is nearly out of strength, Kenshin wonders if he should just give up and let history decide who was right and who was wrong.

Kenshin is still haunted by the events in Kyoto, where, as Hitokiri Battosai, he once made the streets flow with blood.