When lone swordsman Guts is defeated in a duel by Griffith, ambitious leader of the Band of the Hawk mercenaries, he now must fight for him. Distrustful of all at first, through hard-fought battles, he soon begins to bond with his new comrades and their leader. As they rise in rank to a full-fledged army, he begins to harbor doubts about a life lived by the blade, unaware a dreadful fate awaits.