Chizuru Akitani is the 12-year-old daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese 'Living National Treasure' Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is tormented by her classmates. When Chizuru's mother dies suddenly her father offers her no comfort and the cruelty at school only intensifies. In a moment of blind rage, Chizuru fatally stabs a classmate in the neck. For the next seven years, Chizuru is institutionalised. Upon release, Chizuru flees Japan for a new identity and life in the United States. She renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries a loving man, and soon has a daughter. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, announcing the death of her father, Rio feels compelled to return to Japan. Back in her homeland, long-kept secrets are suddenly unearthed and Rio's dark past is thrusted back into her life.