Ayako accompanies her parents to San Francisco, London, Ottawa, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires.

Taunted as a "dirty Jap" in San Francisco, Ayako learns English well in London and makes friends. In Ottawa she feels Canadian, but back in Tokyo, Ayako is too Western. World War II breaks out while the Tomiis are in Buenos Aires and they are interned.

This memoir describes Ayako's attempts to lead a normal childhood, with its ordinary pleasures, amidst the glamour and uncertainty of diplomatic life in the l930s and l940s.