Ancient prophesy dictates that one of the nine worlds will be saved while the other eight perish in a great apocalypse. Princess Kaguya learns that fate has saddled her with the responsibility of choosing which of the nine worlds survives. However, at the moment of her choosing, Kaguya shocks everyone with her declaration that she will not choose one. Instead, she will find a partner with whom she will work toward salvation for all. Her naive idealism, though, leaves no room for the greed and corruption already spread across the nine worlds like a virus. The Emperor Kura, for one, will stop at nothing to control all worlds. So whereas Kaguya sees her message as a call for peace and unification, Kura and many like him see it as a call to arms in a multi-dimensional war that could mean the destruction of the entire known universe.

Kaguya
Kaguya was found when she was very young, looking like a war refugee. Adopted by the Haruyamas, she grew up loving her family but still feeling alienated without the knowledge of her past. Her life is again thrown into chaos when her father is arrested for embezzlement, and then again when she is confronted by Gold with the truth about her past.

Gold
He is an android replica of Kagami, the boy from Kaguya's dreams. With a skintight metal outfit and gold whip, which Kagami used to wield, Gold has been sent to protect Kaguya. He is typically silent and willingly does anything Kaguya says. Sometimes however, Kagami's personality takes over the android, and in those moments, Kagami remembers Kaguya.

In addition to Planet Ladder, Narushima Yuri has also created two other epic-in-scope manga series. Shounen Mahoushi (The Young Magician) tells the story of a magician and demon at odds, but still friends, in the wake of other mystical forces that want them dead, and Genjuu Bunsho is a science-fantasy adventure of two men sent to unravel the secrets of a new society that came into being after the near-end of mankind in a cataclysmic meteor shower. Yuri based the beautifully illustrated, galaxy-spanning saga Planet Ladder after an old Japanese fable, Kaguya-Hime (Princess Kaguya).