Laura is 10 and part of a rather large family. Her father works at Boeing, and her mother seems to run a hotel. Anyhow, one of her brothers becomes seriously ill and is taken to the hospital. He has come down with polio.
It's 1944 in the novel, or early 1945. They are in Seattle, and there had been a Japanese American family living there, but they were shipped off to an internment camp.
Has a friend named Yvonne who hates the Japanese; her brother died at Pearl Harbor.
Eddie, the one with polio, comes back from the hospital. One leg is ok, but one is weak and he has to use crutches most of the time to walk. The school year then starts.
In Laura's class there's to be an election for someone to head their war-stamp program. Laura wonders if she can run even if she's a girl, and the teacher says she can, but probably won't get as many votes as a boy.
The Japanese-American family that had been at the hotel then were interned now return. This also includes a Japanese-American girl that will be going to the same school Laura does, but one grade below. Laura worries about what her friends will think.
Laura gets to learn more about Miyoko, the Japanese-American girl. Her father is in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-Nisei group that was very highly decorated in the war.
Laura tries to get Yvonne to understand that there is nothing wrong with Miyoko just because she is of Japanese ancestry, any more than Yvonne is of German ancestry.
Several more persons of Japanese ancestry enter the school.
A reference is made by one of the school teachers of the explosion of a balloon bomb that ended up killing some people. (It was the only bomb of its kind that actually killed anyone, even though Japan sent some 9000 plus of these balloon bombs to the U.S. Around 90% of the bombs never made it to the U.S.)
There's a week left of school when Laura's father announces that they have sold the hotel and will move to a regular house.
The rest of the book deals with the end of the war and a short time after.
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