In sunny California, the Vietnam War may have just ended, but nine-year-old Helen Johnson's world is beginning to crumble. Her mother's behavior has become increasingly erratic, her father, a recently released P.O.W., is powerless to help, and her brother is too young to understand what's happening. Convinced that the key to keeping her family together lies in the mysteries surrounding her mother's adoption from Japan, Helen writes to her great-uncle Hideo in the Japanese town of Kamakura, beginning a journey that will take her across the ocean and through the war-torn histories of both countries.<BR>As Hideo and his wife recount the stories of his family's silk business in Hiroshima, their experiences in China and Japan during and after World War II, and the fate of his sister Ume, Helen's grandmother, they discover that although their lives have been darkened by war and separation, their future - like that of the 800-year-old spirit tree Helen and Hideo visit at the Hachiman shrine - depends upon carefully tending their shared roots.