The illegitimate child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Noriko "Nori" Kamiza is an outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-brother, Akira, to the estate, Nori finds in him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an unlikely but powerful bond. Now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it -- a battle that just might cost her everything.

Includes reading group guide (453-455).