Fourteen-year-old John Priddle didn't want to leave his friends in Oklahoma. But Daddy, a would-be inventor, was offered a job on Mr. Doles pineapple plantation in the Hawaii Territory in 1925. Hawaii was beautiful, but to John it was anything but paradise. He had never felt more alone in his life. Nobody wanted to be his friend. The Hawaiian kids called him haole -- "white guy" -- and wouldn't play with him. Then John met Kalola Pukui -- a girl in his class who was not like anyone he had met before. She knew he was uneasy around girls, so she promised not to be a girl around him -- and proved she could run, fish, and ride better than any boy around. Then she challenged him to take a chance on friendship -- a friendship that would change his life....