"Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end - but instead she discovers it is only just beginning"--Publisher's description.

Follows the story of quarantined leprosy patient Rachel Kalama's daughter, Ruth, who is raised by adoptive Japanese parents on a California grape farm before her unjust internment during World War II.