Hikotaro is thirteen years old and an orphan, left to a life of adventure at sea. When the merchant vessel he sails on is caught in a violent storm on the Pacific, an American ship comes to the rescue and takes the him to San Francisco. With trepidation and hope, the boy - dubbed Hikozo by the American sailors - struggles to find a place in his new country.

He dreams of returning to his village, but shogunate policy forbids reentry to Japanese who have been abroad. Still, he tries, sailing to Hong Kong aboard a ship commanded by the legendary Commodore Matthew Perry, only to be refused and returned to California. There, a wealthy American businessman adopts the young man, takes him east to Baltimore, and introduces him to a world of influence and power.

Ten years later, Hikozo finally returns to a Japan stirred into violence as the country opens to the world. But America is in the midst of its bloody Civil War, and there is no place he can call home.