In Eisner-nominated Fumi Yoshinaga's alternative history of Edo-era Japan, the men of Japan are dying out, and the women have taken up the reigns of power--including the shogun's seat! In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the shogun's Inner Chamber. With the death of her monstrous father, Iesada is assured that she can finally have a consort who will survive life in the Inner Chambers. And she is delighted that the new spouse chosen for her is intelligent, kind and considerate of her past trauma. But the consort Nariatsu comes to the court with a past of his own--and an assignment from his liege lord that could pit him against his beloved shogun.