Tornado is a young Japanese woman living in 1790s Scotland, daughter of Fujin, a former samurai swordsman turned puppeteer. She has been trained in samurai skills by her father and travels with him performing puppet shows.

Sugarman's gang ambushes Tornado and her father after robbing a church. They kill her father Fujin and pursue Tornado because she has stolen their gold. Sugarman and his son Little Sugar are the main antagonists hunting her.

During a puppet show, Tornado witnesses a young boy pickpocketing the gang's gold. She hides the boy and the gold in her father's wagon, then later throws the boy out to keep the gold safe. She eventually hides the gold in a hole in the woods while fleeing the gang.

Little Sugar is Sugarman's son who pursues Tornado after she escapes. He is described as cunning and somewhat self-interested, sometimes acting as an uneasy ally but mainly looking out for himself.

After escaping the gang, Tornado hides among the performers of a travelling circus and reconnects with a strongman who was an old friend of her father, using this as a refuge while continuing her quest for survival and revenge.