The story begins with Kyoko's trip back to Japan after having moved to America and abandoning her Japanese culture. She returns to Kobe, her hometown, to try to come to terms with her tortured childhood and the experiences that molded her into the person she is today. The theme that emerges in the first chapter of the memoir is how deeply cultural roots influence a person's adult self, even a person who becomes assimilated into another culture. Mori never felt totally at home in either setting—Japan or America—but both play an important role in determining who she ultimately became.

The first chapter begins as a flashback, to March of 1969, on the day of Kyoko's mother's death. She committed suicide in her own kitchen, placing a plastic bag over her head, unhooking the gas line from the stove, and breathing in...