The 47th samurai

Bob Lee Swagger is finally back home, now retired and living in rural Crazy Horse, Idaho. Just as he's beginning to settle into the quiet routine of old age, he gets a surprise visit from Philip Yato, a Japanese war veteran. Yato reveals that fifty years ago, Swagger's father killed his own at a battle on Iwo Jima. He is now on a search for his father's military sword, which is of great emotional value to the Yato family. Though Swagger cannot immediately produce the sword, he embarks on a convoluted hunt that eventually leads him to the blade, which he personally delivers to Yato in the suburbs of Tokyo.