Greenwood County's Mexican, Japanese, and Anglo enclaves coexist in an uneasy truce on Colorado's High Plains, until Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. A sign appears in the barbershop window: "Japs Shaved Free-Not Responsible for Accidents-25 cents for a Jap Ear." Decades before talk of building a great wall on the southern border or registering Muslims, Greenwood was riven.

Art and Martha Lundgren, still grieving their baby's death, covertly maintain friendships with Japanese on nearby farms. Having lost hired hands to the service and struggling to meet food production goals, they turn...