Girl from Birch Creek

Portrait of the Danish soldier Knud Hougaard in Iraq.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA recruited Hmong tribesmen in the hills of Laos to fight the Communists, then brought them as refugees to America. Forty years later in California, someone who might be a CIA operative approaches a Hmong human rights activist about buying weapons to continue the fight.

Onodera Yuriko sets off for Sweden where her husband, Major General Onodera Makoto, is stationed as a military attache in Stockholm during World War II. Called the "god of intelligence", Makoto is an intelligence officer of the Russian service of the Japanese Army General Staff. Fluent in Russian and German and trusted by the spies of many countries because of his integrity, his office would eventually become the most important Japanese intelligence post in Europe. From the day of her arrival in Stockholm, Yuriko helps her husband's intelligence activities. She encrypts the highly classified information obtained by Makoto and sends it in coded telegrams to the General Staff Headquarters in Japan every day. Husband and wife have jointly undertaken this intelligence work for confidentiality. When they go out, they are always watched and their children's lives are exposed to danger. They face endless anxiety and tension. Yuriko stifles her heartbreak as a mother and sends the telegrams. One day, Makoto learns about a secret agreement made between the Allies at the Yalta Conference. It is about the Soviet Union's decision to join the war against Japan - classified information that will determine Japan's defeat. In an attempt to stop the war, Yuriko sends a telegram, believing that her country will certainly work for peace if they receive this information. However, the couple's information is not used, the atomic bombs are dropped and Japan is defeated. After the war, Yuriko translates children's literature such as the Moomin series while Makoto is tight-lipped about what happened during the war and passes his days with chagrin. Hoping to restore his pride, Yuriko talks about facing the past one more time. Makoto decides to search for the whereabouts of the missing telegrams.