Philippe Gaston (Matthew Broderick), a thief, escapes from the dungeon at Aquila, sparking a manhunt. He is nearly captured when Captain Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer) befriends him. Navarre has been hunted by the Bishop's men for two years, ever since he escaped with the Lady Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer), after whom the Bishop (John Wood) has lusted. Navarre and Isabeau have a curse that the Bishop has placed on them that causes Navarre to be a wolf during the night and Isabeau to be a hawk during the day. Navarre insists that Philippe help him re-enter the city to help him kill the heavily guarded Bishop.

Nishi, a police detective, has had to deal with a series of emotionally devastating events over the recent past. His only child, then preschool age, died two years ago. His wife, currently in the hospital, has been diagnosed with a terminal case of leukemia. And he develops a case of guilt when his colleague Horibe, during a stakeout which Nishi himself was supposed to be on but who, on Horibe's suggestion, was visiting his wife in the hospital instead at the time, gets shot point blank. That guilt is only exacerbated when Horibe, who as a result becomes paraplegic, is abandoned by his wife and child, with Horibe himself at a loss with what to do with his life as being a police was his sole identity. As a means to cope, Nishi becomes increasingly reckless, which affects the way he does his police work. That recklessness extends to his personal life when his wife's doctor recommends that she go home, Nishi, in the process, borrowing money from the yakuza to make ends meet. That recklessness also leads to him taking matters into his own hands as he tries to make his and his wife's life together, for however long it will last, a series of small yet special moments.

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