Riyo marries a man more than twice her age. She is devastated and labors in the sugar cane field. At the end she is able to love her husband.

The story of 16-year-old Riyo who journeys to Hawaii in 1918 to marry a man she has never met, except through photographs and letters they have exchanged. Hoping to escape a troubled past and to start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age and Hawaii is not the paradise she expected. As Riyo comes to terms with her new home, she discovers a land full of hardship, struggle--and unexpected joy.—<[email protected]>

This is a movie about the American dream as seen through the Japanese experience. In the early 1900's, Japanese women came to Hawaii as mail-brides to marry young and wealthy sugar cane farmers. When they arrived, they found that their expectations were not met. They suddenly realized that they were trapped into life as a farm laborer and were married to a husband who was neither young nor wealthy and was a farm laborer as well. The movie deals with the trials and tribulations of this life: seeking the means to return to Japan, living in a marriage without love, and coping with the hardships of working as a farm laborer.—Joel Schesser <[email protected]>