In 1869, during the second year of the Meiji era when Hokkaido was still called Ezo, the former Shogunate army corporal Okudaira Hachirouta is defeated in the Battle of Hakodate. Badly wounded and fleeing with his elder brother Kiichirou and comrade Sakichi, they retreat deep into the forests of Yurakubu, far north of Hakodate. As both Hachirouta and Sakichi grow too weak from their injuries to continue, Kiichirou convinces them to let him go on alone so their deaths will not be meaningless. Immediately after his brother leaves, Hachirouta is attacked and knocked unconscious by a massive brown bear weighing over three hundred kilograms. He is rescued by Kaburaya Juzou, a former samurai of the Shonai domain who now makes his living as a professional bear hunter. The story follows Hachirouta as a defeated soldier who has lost everything, chronicling his journey of survival and his gradual rebirth as a bear hunter in the harsh, undeveloped northern wilderness.