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. Young Iemochi's new consort harbors a secret so scandalous that the shogunate must become involved in the deception or risk a further erosion of power. And with the dual threats of foreign incursion and imperial obstruction, Iemochi and her closest advisers have no choice but to play the dangerous new game set before them.