Kate misses the window seat in her house in California, her favorite place in the whole world. She misses the wonderful dog-smell of her Labrador retriever, Boggs. She misses her white oak canopy bed, pancakes on Saturday mornings, and ballet classes with her best friend, Sara. But most of all, Kate misses feeling like she belongs.

When her father decides the Kahele family should move to Hawai'i, all Kate can think about is the life she is leaving behind. As her father studies for the state Bar exam so he can work for a Hawaiian rights organization and her dark-skinned brother, David, happily hits the beaches with his surfer friends, Kate is tormented by her classmates for being a hapa haole, or "half-white" girl, because of her freckled skin and sun-streaked hair, inherited from her mother. It seems everyone is telling her to "toughen up" and "fight back," but Hawai'i is supposed to be the land of aloha, of love, welcome, and homecoming, and never before has Kate had to dfend her white heritage.

But then she discovers hula dancing, and gradually learns to feel the rhythms of the land, the moon, and the palm trees. And Kathryn Maluhia Kahele begins to feel the other half of her heritage and, finally the meaning ofher middle name: peace.