The burgeoning jazz scene in Seattle's International District in the 1940s comes to life through the eyes of Henry Lee, a Chinese-American boy caught in the turmoil of increasing anti-Japanese sentiment at school, at home, and in the neighborhood. Bullied by his all-white schoolmates and shunned as a traitor by his Chinese peers, Henry finds friendship in unlikely places and confronts the identity that his parents want for him. Forty-odd years later, Henry's wife has recently died, and he longs to bridge the communication gap with his college-age son. His story is pieced together beautifully through his perspectives as a son in the 1940s and a father in the 1980s.
