A historical novel about Sawase Jingoro, who is taken into Tokugawa service, then drifts through Sakai, Satsuma, Hakata, and Luzon before being caught up in Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea. It portrays conscience that refuses to yield amid trade, power, and war in late sixteenth-century Japan.

Like crossing the sea by the stars, this is a story of holding on to conscience in a turbulent age.