Japan at the beginning of the 17th Century, John Blackthorne, an English navigator shipwrecked off the coast of Japan is rescued; he becomes an eyewitness to a deadly struggle involving Tornaga, a feuding warlord intent on becoming Shogun-The Supreme Military Dictator. At the same time, Blackthorne is irresistibly drawn into the turmoil and finds himself vying to become the first-ever Gai-Jin (foreigner) to be a made a Samurai Warrior.

A ship-wrecked English navigator becomes both an observer and a participant in historic changes wracking a Japan coming to grips with contact with western society.

After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai.

A narrative of conflicting cultures, loyalties, motivations, and traditions in early-seventeenth-century Japan, involving the powerful and powerhungry Lord Toranaga, the ambitious Englishman, Blackthorne, and the Lady Mariko, a Catholic convert in love with the barbarian Englishman.

A narrative of conflicting cultures, loyalties, motivations, and traditions in early-seventeenth-century Japan, involving the powerful and powerhungry Lord Toranaga, the ambitious Englishman, Blackthorne, and the Lady Mariko, a Catholic convert in love with the barbarian Englishman.