A man meets his first love in the rain.

During the late Heian era, a youth who did not know his birth parents was raised by the Heike (also known as the Taira), a samurai clan of emerging influence. Taira no Kiyomori (Matsuyama Kenichi) was in truth the illegitimate son of Emperor Shirakawa. With his adoptive father, Tadamori (Nakai Kiichi), he got rid of the pirates in the Seto Insland Sea, and was trained to be a samurai. In a period where the samurai were being discriminated by the aristocrats of the upper echelons of society, Kiyomori, who was adept at winning hearts and minds, controlled the pirates. He worked to reform the aristocracy, persisted with the way of life of the samurai and built up the mighty Taira clan (Nakamura Baijaku, Kamikawa Takaya, Fujimoto Takahiro, Daito Shunsuke). Before long, he rose from a senior courtier of the third rank to become the chief minister and the ruler of Japan.

"Birdcage Inn" is a story about Jina, the new call girl at the Birdcage Inn. The Birdcage Inn is a hotel that is operated by a poor family - a father, mother and their two kids. The family relies on Jina's income as a whore to pay the expenses that keep the hotel alive for business; as well as putting food on the table. Still, the family is barely getting by and practically living very low-class. There's not much known about Jina, but one thing is clear, she's not happy with her job status (is there a whore who is?). When Jina's not working, she takes the time to enjoy the beauty of looking at the ocean. Jina is also a terrific artist, but God only knows why she doesn't use her artistic talents instead of selling her body. It's apparent that Jina is obviously torn from something that happened in her unexplainable past.

Hyemi, the daughter of the family, resents Jina from the beginning. Not only does Hyemi hate the fact that her family runs such a scummy business, but she blames Jina for being the primary tool. Jina notices Hyemi's rude attitude towards her, but still tries to win her affection by doing nice things for her and buying her items she can't afford. Still, Hyemi doesn't budge. The plot thickens when unexpected things *cough* start to happen: Jina's old pimp shows up out of the blue demanding that he still gets a cut of her earnings, Hyemi's young brother develops a small crush on her which leads to trouble, Jina gets involved with an Andy Lau-wannabe, and worst of all, Hyemi's boyfriend gets in between Hyemi and Jina.

The series revolved around a lawyer Francis Siu Wai Mo (Carol/Do Do Cheng Yu Ling) and her paralegal advisor Yu Lok Tin (Dayo Wong). Between avoiding the "spinster" label and creatively fighting trivial law suits, Frances uses her wit and class to outsmart her main rival, lawyer Alex Pao. In addition, Francis also has personal problems to deal with in the homefront such as getting used to her new younger stepmother.

Shinsuke Kuwano (Abe Hiroshi), a successful architect at 40, enjoys living by himself. He doesn't like people but somehow is able to design wonderful houses for them.

He has a routine of making himself a delicious dinner and then relaxing to classical music in his easy chair. (He likes to pretend he is the conductor.) One night, he plays the music loud enough to make his next door neighbor, Michiru Tamara (Kuninaka Ryoko) knock on his door to complain. When Kuwano answers the door, he suffers a terrible stomach pain and collapses to the floor. Lucky for him, his neighbor Michiru is nice enough to accompany him to the hospital, where he is treated by Dr. Natsumi Hayasake (Natsukawa Yui). He is really rude to Natsumi, but she is still determined to treat him.

Afterwards, Michiru and Natsumi become part of Kuwano's life. They make friends with Kuwano's colleagues Eiji (Tsukamoto Takashi) and Maya Sawazaki (Takashima Reiko). They all enjoy talking about how strange and eccentric Kuwano is. Is it possible that someone would ever want to marry him?

It's the 18th NHK Taiga Drama. It depicts how the winner, the Satsuma Clan, and the loser, the Aizu Clan, survive through the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration in their respective ways of life.