The Brides
The book is told in the first person perspective from these women at different points in their lives. They are not given specific names or identities, so one cannot follow a specific woman through the events of the book but most consider them as a group. These women are mail order brides from Japan, coming to California to meet their new husbands and to begin their new lives. Most of them do not speak fluent English at the beginning. Each lands in a slightly different situation as they build lives with their new husbands, having children, learning the language, and enduring the increasing suspicion of their white neighbors after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some women become day laborers in the less affluent parts of the state. A few of them end up living with wealthy white families as full-time servants. And others set up businesses with their husbands in the Japantown districts of the major cities. Eventually all of the families are covertly dragged away by the U.S. government as a part of their Japanese relocation program and moved into confinement camps for the duration of the war.
The White Families
After the Japanese-American families are taken away by the government, the final chapter of the book is told from the perspective of their white neighbors. Some of them truly miss their neighbors and are concerned for their welfare. Some take charge of their neighbors' businesses, possessions, or pets in order to preserve something for their (hopeful) return. After a while, however, most of them move on with their lives and start to forget about their Japanese neighbors amid the chaos of war preparations.
