In this gripping novel, a man in despair stumbles upon the secrets of his Japanese father's World War II experiences, and the past that shaped his family.

Robert Takahashi sits in the empty attic of his mother's old home in Hawaii, a home he has to sell to cover financial losses from her nursing home care-and his own massive gambling debts. Once his affairs are in order, he can proceed to the next step: suicide. His wife is done with him anyway. His daughters-well, he's nothing but an embarrassment to them.

Robert barely remembers his father and knows little about his parents' past. But a manuscript he's just found-left under an eave and contained in a dusty box along with ten medals from the US military-will enlighten him about many things. As he reads his father's words, he discovers a story of a Japanese boy born in Hawaii, a life uprooted by internment, and a young Nisei's harrowing quest to prove his patriotism by serving with the renowned 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He also learns about a long-ago forbidden love-and how prejudice can derail a life-in this sweeping tale of family, war, and two generations of men battling powerful forces both externally and within themselves.