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Skye lives in Virginia with her mother and father. She loves to play soccer and has finally made the All-Star team for the coming summer. Hiroshi lives in Japan with his mother, his father and his grandfather. His grandfather makes kites and his family has a tradition of participating in rokkaku kite battles. This year Hiroshi is finally old enough to enter on his own and his first kite battle is only a month away. Although they have never met, Skye and Hiroshi are cousins and, although they don’t know it, their Grandfather is very sick.

Suddenly, Hiroshi finds himself leaving Japan and moving with his family to the United States seeking treatment for Grandfather. He brings his kite with him, but then Grandfather insists they teach his cousin Skye how to fly it as well.  Meanwhile, Skye’s parents tell her she must spend the summer going to Japanese school instead of playing soccer.  As if that isn’t enough, suddenly the kids at school are teasing her and Hiroshi. Now she has to decide if she’s going to stand up for her cousin or side with her friends to avoid being teased herself.  

Will Skye and Hiroshi be able to get to know each other and put aside their differences in time to enjoy Grandfather’s company? Will Skye find a way to learn Japanese and still play soccer? Will Hiroshi be able to teach Skye enough about kite flying so that she can be his assistant in the rokkaku kite battle at the National Cherry Blossom Festival? As Skye and Hiroshi learn to navigate the changes in their world, they learn that sometimes the same rules that apply to kite flying can be applied to real life.