But this time the story is told by Sawa Oyama, the mother, whose moving story begins when she obediently leaves Japan for Hawaii as a picture bride. She plans to return from that 'rock' in five years, but encounters Odyssean obstacles. There is endless labor and little sleep; she gets up in the middle of the night to be initiated into tofu making, she wills pigs, she works as a seamstress to supplement the family income, and bears one child after another while her husband's bad luck sinks the family into deepening debt. This id Murayama's tribute to his mother and all those immigrant women who more than paid their dues.