One summer in Tokyo, Claire finds herself living at her grandparents house. She also takes up a part-time job, where she teaches French to a 10-year-old Mieko. Claire's grandparents are Zainichi Koreans, who run Shiny, a Pachinko Parlour, and this summer she is determined to take them to South Korea, the country they fled during the Civil War. Using fragmented English and minimal Korean, she communicates with her grandparents because she knows speaking Japanese is out of the question.

This book is about a lot of things; the narrative is nuanced and deeply layered. There's no plot, nor does it need one. One has to read between the lines to understand not only Claire's loneliness—despite being around family—and turmoil but her grandparents', too. Imagine moving to a country, raising a family there, but never calling it home!