A Boy Called H begins in 1937. H (short for Hajime) lives in Kobe with his father, mother, and younger sister. H is about seven years old. Japan is at war with China, and this conflict forms the background for the early part of the novel. It can be seen when H befriends a young man who works at the noodle shop and is shocked when his friend is arrested by the police as a communist and made to join the army. Another of H's friends, the projectionist at the movie theater, hangs himself rather than be drafted into the army.

In "Tambourine," H tells of his parents' backgrounds. His father, Morio, came to Kobe in 1918 to become a tailor's apprentice; his mother, Toshiko, came to Kobe to marry Morio. She also became a devoted Christian, but H hates the sound of the tambourine she plays as...