Jake and Estuko Weedsong live a bucolic life on their vineyard in rural Oregon, where Jake spends his days working on a memoir, much of it comprised of his years living and teaching in Japan where he married Etsuko some twenty years earlier. As the novel opens, Jake and Etsuko have been attacked by three skinheads, who are found guilty of a hate crime. At the sentencing hearing Etsuko convinces the judge that a prison sentence will only further reduce the boys' humanity. Instead, she would like these racist boys sentenced to a traditional Japanese dinner at her house where they will be dressed in kimonos and immersed in Japanese culture. This is the story of love and friendship and of the food that nurtures the greatest hopes and desires that hate can be overcome.