It's Vancouver, March 1942.  Nine-year-old Nichiko Minagawa bids her father goodbye before her birthday celebration.  She doesn't know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the city.  Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of British Columbia.

At her new school Michiko finally learns the truth about her situation.  She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years and her first Christmas without her father.

From the back of the book