Series Plot: ShÅgun, set in feudal Japan, charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance.
Episode plot: Toranaga's defeated clan moves to Edo and awaits their fate. Blackthorne must decide who he fights for - the lord who has turned his back on him, or the ambition that brought him to Japan in the first place.