Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) lives above the world, alongside a flock of birds, in a homemade shack on the roof of an abandoned building. Guided by the words of an ancient samurai text, Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure, Ghost Dog is a professional killer able to dissolve into the night and move through the city unnoticed. When Ghost Dog's code is dangerously betrayed by the dysfunctional mafia family that occasionally employs him, he reacts strictly in accord with the Way of the Samurai. In Ghost Dog's words, "We're like two ancient tribes, both almost extinct... and everything seems to be changing around us".