Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.

Two brothers, Takamaru and Kikumaru, are living with their father, Hakuraku-Ou, until one day Hakuraku-Ou is killed by "Death's-Head" Ginnosuke, a villain skilled in the art of sorcery. Hakuraku-Ou had long been seeking a Tiger Seal which, together with the Dragon Seal in his possession, would reveal the location of a huge ancestral fortune. But on the very night that the Tiger Seal was found, it was stolen by Tomomitsu, Ginnosuke's chief. When the two brothers receive the Dragon Seal from their father just before his death they determine to go to Death's-Head Castle, in order to recover the Tiger Seal.

On summer vacation, university student Shintaro gets involved with a magic troupe as they travel from festival to festival.