In the early twentieth century, after the Russo‑Japanese War, Saichi Sugimoto worked relentlessly in Hokkaido's gold pans. Known as "Sugimoto the Immortal" for his fearless deeds on the battlefield, the former soldier now pursues wealth to honor a vow he made to his best friend before the latter fell in combat: to care for his family, particularly his widow who requires eye treatment abroad. One evening a drunken acquaintance recounts a story about a man who killed several Ainu and seized a great hoard of gold. Before being apprehended, he buried the treasure somewhere on Hokkaido"s land, leaving only a cryptic map tattooed on his fellow prisoners" bodies as a promise of a share if they ever escaped and found it.
Sugimoto dismisses the tale until he encounters the corpse of the drunken man, bearing exactly those same tattoos. Yet before he can process this, a grizzly bear—responsible for the man"s death—charges at him, intent on finishing its meal. A young Ainu woman named Asirpa, whose father was among the murdered, rescues him. Combining her tracking prowess with Sugimoto"s wilderness skills, they decide to hunt for the hidden gold—she to reclaim what was stolen from her people, he to keep his friend"s dying wish alive.
