Set in an alternate near-future Japan, a young woman codenamed "Kabuki", acts as an agent and television law-enforcement personality for a clandestine government body known as "The Noh".
The agency itself exists as part of Japan's strict police state, which hunts down and brutally executes criminals for their misdeeds under the veil of keeping the peace.
Ryuchi Kai is the General's son and another war veteran, who is a Yakuza boss and every bit as deadly and brilliant as his father but has earned a reputation for swift brutality.
Astonishingly, despite the high level of discretion surrounding Noh, Kai manages to infiltrate the agency, personally, by using its policy of masked operatives to his advantage.
Publicly Kai is a talented businessman with much stock and influence in the Japanese market, thus this move makes him indispensable and essential to the balance.
Kabuki's origins are revealed as the story progresses, her mother was an Ainu comfort woman named "Tsukiko" taken by Japanese soldiers during WWII.
Nine years later, Kai, still demented and vicious, learns of the child's existence and savagely attacks Ukiko at her mother's grave, once again carving "Kabuki" into her skin, this time along the girl's face.
From then on, the General grooms her into a perfect soldier, having her trained in martial arts, combat and weaponry so that she may never fall victim to another assault.
With the following volumes, it is revealed that Ukiko was in fact abducted shortly after this, by a rival agency called "Control Corps", who treat her injuries and keep her trapped and medicated within a hidden asylum for broken-down government agents.
Ironically during the months of searching, two of the agents, codenamed "Scarab" and "Tigerlilly", become friends and start socializing as civilians – something which later compromises their mission.
Mack uses myriad art styles, not only pencil, ink, and color, but paint, magazine clippings, manga scans, and crayons.
In Kabuki: The Alchemy especially, many of the pages are photos (or color scans) of collages using a variety of materials; for example, the fingers of Japanese sandalwood fans become the borders of the comic panels.
The general color and clothing is black leather and silk, which makes it easy for an assassin to avoid detection while moving about in shadows and darkness.
For example, spikes are worn as part of Scarab's assassin garb, because her armor design is based on a sketch that Yukio drew in his spare time.
The Noh assassins are highly skilled with Neo Warsaw Pact and NATO firearms, Okinawan black market weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and attack and defense using the environment.
Versions not connected to the actual plot: David Mack has been working on a live-action Kabuki feature film for 20th Century Fox.
Due to the sculptor using a particular comic panel for his image of Tigerlily, she was designed wealding twin Uzzi machine pistols rather than her usual blades, resulting in confusion among players and fans, as all 3 of her game pieces had no "range" value.