Eleven-year-old Joseph Hanada drives to the countryside with his family. He wishes they could own land as beautiful as the farm they visit, but his parents and grandmother are first-generation immigrants from Japan and are legally not allowed to own land in America. A family called the Spooners owns the farm and offers the Hanadas a free Christmas tree. The Hanadas mark the tree they want but don’t cut it down yet because a tree starts dying once it’s unrooted.

Joe’s friend Ryan invites him over to play basketball, and Joe notes that his parents and 16-year-old brother Mike are uncharacteristically reserved with Ryan. Joe has overheard his family having late-night conversations about war with Germany, and what will happen to them if Japan allies with Germany. Mike and Joe are American citizens, but their parents and grandmother are not allowed to become citizens.

Ryan and Joe are playing basketball when Ryan’s parents tell them that the Japanese Air Force has bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Joe rushes home to his family, and the whole neighborhood is out talking. Though most of the neighbors include the Hanadas in their embrace, Joe notices some have “[t]heir arms […] folded across their chests, their faces […] ugly with hostility” (15).