Born of a Japanese father and American mother, 10 year-old, Ana Ishikawa witnesses the brutal slaying of her entire family. The child is consequently spirited away and raised by her grandfather, Yoshitora, a descendent of the Sohei, the great warrior monks of medieval Kyoto. 
Shrouded in secrecy, Yoshitora trains Ana in the ways of the Sohei - her sole mission in life is to seek out her family's murderer and avenge her family's honor. Never forgetting the Catholic teachings of her mother, however, Ana's life becomes one of constant inner conflict between her programmed mission of revenge and the Christian leanings she secretly harbors. With her conflicted soul weakened, this vengeful obsession consumes Ana's very being, as she transforms herself to Shi - the living embodiment of Death, who since childhood, has terrified and encouraged her in her crusade of vengeance. And yet the duality that rages Ana's soul will not permit her submission to the death demon that terrorizes her. For Ana's faith and the ethereal visions of her gallant ancestral Sohei shepherd her along the bloody Way of the Warrior. (Official biograph)