After spending the war years in a Canadian internment camp, 13-year-old Aya Shimamura and her father are barred from returning home to the west coast. Grieving the loss of Aya’s mother, they move back to Tokyo, where Aya’s father struggles to find work. Meanwhile, Aya is alienated and bullied at school for being foreign. When a rumor surfaces that General MacArthur might help citizens in need, Aya's classmate, Fumi, asks her to write a letter asking him to find her beloved sister. With no response, the girls take matters into their own hands, venturing into the dark and dangerous underside of Tokyo’s Ginza district.