Ten-year-old Manami does not realize how peaceful her life on Bainbridge Island, Washington, is until the day it all changes. It's 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are forced by the government to leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the California desert. Manami is sad to go, but, even worse, her family must give her dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat and gets as far as the mainland before she is caught and forced to abandon him. Devastated by the loss of her beloved pet and by her family's sudden move, Manami finds refuge in drawing pictures of Yujiin and writing promises to take good care of him if only he will return to her. Each morning she hopes he will come back and she sends her promise drawings into the air. Will her family ever be whole again?" -- Page [4] cover.