Tori Kovic’s father has always talked about his time in Japan after World War II, and the woman he fell in love with there. Now, as he’s dying, a letter from Japan has arrived and Tori knows she has to uncover the truth about her father and his life in Japan in the 1950’s. Traveling between past and present, Johns pens a story of a young woman growing up in Japan when the culture there was becoming more modern, more American. When Naoko falls in love with an American even as her parents have arranged a marriage with one of her father’s business associates, a scandalous love affair and a child out of wedlock ensue.