The Kamakura shogunate has become a corrupt autocracy of the Hōjō family. Inheritor of Genji blood, Ashikaga Sadauji's eldest son Takauji grows up amidst dramatic meetings with various personages. In tune with the voice of the people wishing for a new age, Takauji, through pride as leader of the Genji, firmly resolves to overthrow the shogunate. The Emperor Go-Daigo is accused of planning a coup and exiled to the island of Oki, but escapes. Warlord Kusunoki Masashige retreats into seclusion at Chihaya Castle, Kawachi, in defiance of the shogunate. Takauji obeys the shogun's orders and leaves to pacify Shikoku but on the way he calls together his family's retainers and waves the standard of revolt. Joining Takauji's movement, the army of Nitta Yoshisada attacks Kamakura. The shogunate and the Hōjō clan are destroyed in a blaze. Emperor Go-Daigo returns to Kyōto and begins the Kemmu Restoration. But the opposition of the aristocracy and the warrior class to the controlling rule of the imperial court -- with the shogunate dependent upon the emperor -- has strengthened. A rift develops between Emperor Go-Daigo and Takauji. As Takauji resolves to fight against the restoration of imperial control, hostility develops between him and Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige, who aim to remove Takauji from influence. Takauji defeats Kusunoki Masashige at the decisive battle at Minatogawa, then moves to take Kyōto in hand by setting up the Emperor Kōmyō and establishing the Ashikaga shogunate. Opposing Takauji is Emperor Go-Daigo, who escapes to Yoshino and establishes the Southern Dynasty. The civil war between the Northern and Southern dynasties (the Nambokuchō wars) continue throughout Takauji's ascendency, but antagonism with his younger brother Tadayoshi stirs up internal disputes within the shogunate, presenting Takauji with a new quagmire.

-- Plot summary from the NHK DVD packaging