Following the Russo-Japanese War, the story centers on Saichi Sugimoto, a hardened veteran known as the Immortal Sugimoto for his supernatural luck in surviving battlefields. Now struggling to make a living panning for gold in the frozen wilderness of Hokkaido, he is driven by a promise to provide for the widow of his fallen comrade. His luck appears to change when he hears a drunken tale about a massive cache of Ainu gold, a fortune hidden by a criminal mastermind who was captured and imprisoned in Abashiri Prison. Before the man could reveal the location, he tattooed a cryptic map onto the bodies of twenty-four fellow inmates before they were scattered across Hokkaido.

Sugimoto’s search begins in earnest after a deadly encounter with a bear, from which he is saved by Asirpa, a young Ainu girl with expert hunting skills. Initially an uneasy alliance of convenience—Sugimoto seeks the gold while Asirpa wants to track down the man who murdered her father—the pair form a deep bond. They are soon joined by Yoshitake Shiraishi, a boastful and cowardly escape artist who becomes the first tattooed convict to join their party. Asirpa refuses to skin the prisoners alive to take the tattoos, so the group instead tries to negotiate with each convict, tracing the patterns onto paper.

Their journey quickly becomes a desperate three-way race across the harsh Hokkaido wilderness. The primary antagonist is First Lieutenant Tokushiro Tsurumi, a charismatic but deeply unstable officer of the 7th Infantry Division. Tsurumi, who lost part of his skull in the war, plans to use the gold to fund a military coup and establish an independent puppet state in Hokkaido, commanding a loyal squad of fanatical soldiers. The third major faction is led by Toshizo Hijikata, a legendary last samurai of the Shinsengumi who is now an elderly but deadly convict. Hijikata seeks the gold to revive the glory of the samurai era and restore the Tokugawa shogunate.

The narrative arc of the live-action drama follows the "Hokkaido Tattooed Prisoners Arc," serving as a direct continuation of the 2024 live-action film. As Sugimoto and Asirpa secure pieces of the map, they clash with Tsurumi’s 7th Division and Hijikata’s gang, encountering a diverse gallery of antagonists and allies, including the legendary bear hunter Tetsuzo Nihei, the psychopathic killer Kazuo Henmi, and the mysterious Ainu fortune teller Inkarmat. The drama adapts the survival, action, and cultural exploration of the original story, highlighting Ainu traditions and the brutal post-war landscape. The season concludes with the conclusion of the first major story arc, setting up an announced sequel film to continue the hunt for the remaining tattooed skins and the hidden gold.