Wandering samurai Matsumura Shinbei earns a daily income challenging and defeating martial arts schools with his vaunted sword skills. He lives a carefree life of a bachelor in a tenement house. One day, another wandering samurai Okiishi Tonomo moves to the tenement house with a baby boy Tsurunosuke. Tonomo's home was recently demolished and his wife preceded him in death. Shinbei tells Tonomo that he can depend on him if he has any difficulty. The next day, Tonomo disappears and Shinbei ends up having to look after Tsurunosuke despite being ill-equipped to do so. He is unusually popular and all sorts of consultations are brought to him by the people of the tenement house such as the divorce feud of the couple who cannot have children, a young girl's scam targeting old people and the lifetime training of the unreliable male successor of a coal merchant. This alcohol loving and very skilled wandering samurai struggles to bring up the baby as he runs about to solve problems within the city.