Summary

Part One is entitled “Hapa.” The Prologue is set in 1917, and the third person narrator explains that Sister Louisa grew up on the South Side of Chicago before she entered the novitiate for the Franciscans in Joliet, IL. She volunteered to move to Hawai’i to serve at the Kapi’olani Home for Girls. There is a storm outside, and Louisa hears a knock on the door. It is Sister Catherine Voorhies carrying an infant. The girl, Ruth Utagawa, is less than a year old and is half Hawaiian and half Japanese. The baby has come from Kalaupapa, a leper colony. The girl’s parents are lepers, but after a year, Ruth has shown no signs of the disease, and as such, she is able to be taken to the orphanage. The parents are only allowed to see their children through glass...