Twelve-year-old Ella Mae Higbee is a sensible girl. She eats her vegetables and wants to be just like Sergeant Friday, her favorite character on Dragnet. So when her auntie Mildred starts spouting nonsense about a scientist who can bring her cousin Robby back to life, Ella Mae doesn't believe her - until a boy steps out of the scientist's pod and drips slime on the floor right before her eyes.
But the boy is not Robby - he's Japanese. And in California in the wake of World War II, the Japanese are still feared and mistreated. When Auntie Mildred refuses to take responsibility, Ella Mae convinces her mama to take the boy home with them. It's clear that he'll be kept like a prisoner in that lab, and she wants to help.
Determined to do what's right by her new friend, Ella Mae teaches him English and defends him from the reverend's talk of H-E-double-toothpicks. But when the boy's painful memories resurface, Ella Mae learns some surprising truths about her own family and, more importantly, what it means to love.
