Helen, the 9-yr.-old narrator of the novel, shoulders the burden of her war-scarred family. Watching Saigon's evacuation on television, Helen's parents are already suffering from post-traumatic depression: her mother was born in Japan after World War II while her father is haunted by his tour of duty in Vietnam. When her mother is institutionalized, Helen and her brother are sent to live with their uncle, Steve. Helen contacts her mother's Japanese uncle, Hideo, in order to understand her mother's past.