From the inside front cover:

In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard.

The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe, and with this knowledge he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the nightingale floor and to his destiny within the walls of Inuyama.

Overcome by the intensity of first love and conflicted by loyalties and his own divided nature, Takeo realizes that he must make his own way on this journey of revenge and treachery, honor and loyalty, betrayal and love.

This was amazing. I am stunned by its beauty. I can't wait to read the other two in this trilogy!

I'm holding this to give to my father after I have read the other two. Daddy lived in Japan for ten years and will enjoy these quite a bit.

I ended up giving all three of these to my sister. Then she will give them to my father.