It is 1945, and courageous ten-year-old Sookan and her family must endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea. Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit. Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps. Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school.

Then the war ends. Out come the colorful Korean silks and bags of white rice. But Communist Russian troops...

This follow-up to "The Year of Impossible Goodbyes" provides a revealing look at the role of women in Korean society and the coming of age of one exceptional young woman during the Korean War. An ALA Notable Book.

Sookan, the heroine of "The Year of Impossible Goodbyes" and "Echoes of the White Giraffe," struggles to balance her new life as a college freshman in the United States with expectations from her family at home in Korea.