Edo is a city that once housed the vigor and ambition of samurai from across the country. However, after feudal Japan surrendered to powerful aliens known as the "Amanto," those aspirations now appear unattainable. With the formerly influential shogunate reestablished as a puppet regime, a new law is enacted that immediately bans all swords in public. Enter Gintoki Sakata, an eccentric silver-haired man who always carries a wooden sword and upholds his status as a samurai despite the prohibition. As the founder of Yorozuya, a small odd-jobs business, Gintoki frequently undertakes endeavors to assist others—though typically in rather strange and unforeseen ways. Aided by Shinpachi Shimura, a bespectacled boy supposedly learning the way of the samurai; Kagura, a tomboyish girl with superhuman strength and an insatiable appetite; and Sadaharu, their giant pet dog who enjoys biting people's heads, the Yorozuya encounter everything from alien royalty to brawls with local gangs in the ever-shifting world of Edo.