The story takes place in the distant future, when the planet has been de-faced and human civilization is in its darkest throes. The government is on a crusade to destroy the old culture, to destroy all books, edifices, artifacts, and even persons connected to it. Religions die, one by one. Races of people are rendered extinct through genocide. In the midst of this bloodshed, a savior leading a secret society of seven bodyguards enters. The savior is a young woman who is in actuality the Lotus Sutra, a very important book in the Buddhist religion that is prophesied to bring learning and enlightenment back to human civilization during one of its most precarious times. In the story, the government sends out one of its best killers to seek out the Lotus Sutra and destroy it. The killer ambushes the secret society while it is moving across the desert. He confronts the Young Woman but cannot bring himself to kill her.