Continuing the story begun in So Far From the Bamboo Grove (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1986), Yoko, now thirteen, her sister Ko, seventeen, and brother Hideyo are living in poverty in Kyoto, Japan, in the years immediately following World War II. For them, a cup of rice is precious, and a handful of vegetable greens and fruit peelings are a treat on the day Hideyo turns 21. They are also still hoping to find their father, who has been missing since the war. Their struggles are complicated after a fire destroys the warehouse in which they'd been living and seriously injures Ko. Drawing strength from one another, they never lose hope or grow bitter, and hard work and acts of kindness which they bestow upon others comes full circle in their lives. (Age 12 and older)

The author of the critically acclaimed SO FAR FROM THE BAMBOO GROVE continues her autobiography, describing the hardships, poverty, tragedies, and struggles of life for her and her two older siblings, living as refugees in post-World War II Japan.