Pacific Odyssey to California, 1905

The sparkling beach­es and palm trees seem like a dream to eleven-year-old Su-Na, a Kore­an immi­grant whose fam­i­ly has jour­neyed to the island of Hawaii hop­ing to find a for­tune. While her father works long hours on a sug­ar cane plan­ta­tion, Su-Na and her two younger sis­ters, Jae-Mi and Hi-Jong, get their first glimpse of an unfa­mil­iar cul­ture, taste new foods … and see first­hand the racism that pre­vails among the dif­fer­ent Asian populations.

Dis­cour­aged by their expe­ri­ences in Hawaii, the fam­i­ly moves to Cal­i­for­nia. All of them strug­gle with lan­guage bar­ri­ers, pover­ty, and prej­u­dice in their adopt­ed homeland—and the sis­ters soon find that their new Amer­i­can Lifestyle often con­flicts with their tra­di­tion­al Kore­an her­itage. Grow­ing up in both worlds, the girls begin to under­stand that Amer­i­ca will not tru­ly be a free coun­try until all its peo­ple are con­sid­ered equal.