san francisco (calif.)

When hard times fall on his family, Jo Lee is sent from China to San Francisco, where he helps his uncle fish and dreams of being reunited with his mother and sister.

On April 18, 1906, disaster struck San Francisco. A young man grabbed his camera and started documenting the destruction and death surrounding him. Fearlessly going to the center of the devastation, the man captured scenes of fires, collapsing buildings, and people fleeing for their lives--scenes that no one else had a chance to record. His photographs were preserved in a family photo album, unseen by the public for over a hundred years.

Oldest daughter Leila tells the story: of her sister Ona, who has ended her young, conflicted life by jumping from the roof of a Chinatown housing project; of her mother Mah, a seamstress in a garment shop run by a "Chinese Elvis"; of Leon, her father, a merchant seaman who ships out frequently; and the family's youngest, Nina, who has escaped to New York by working as a flight attendant. With Ona and Nina gone, it is up to Leila to lay the bones of the family's collective guilt to rest, and find some way to hope again.

The author recounts how he formed the San Francisco Special Olympics basketball program.

In San Francisco near the beginning of the twentieth century, Alexia faces a moral dilemma when her con man father tries to cheat the widow who has been like a mother to Alexia.