While Sammy trains at camp, Kei and Frankie lead the resistance to the draft at Heart Mountain. Masaoka, seeking to highlight the valor of 442nd, picks Sammy as its poster boy, and his picture graces the cover of Life Magazine, even as Tatsuo’s condition at Tule Lake deteriorates.

As a JACL spokesman, Sammy calls for the arrest of the resistance, while Hannah seeks to aid the resistance and hide Frankie from the authorities in camp, leading to a violent crackdown. While Sammy and his unit are sent out to rescue a battalion of trapped caucasian soldiers, suffering enormous casualties, Kei receives life-changing news from Frankie in prison.

When the war ends, Sammy is offered a job with the JACL in D.C. Sammy demurs so he can return to his family, now in San Francisco. But when he learns the awful truth of what has transpired since he left camp and of the choices his sister Kei has made, his happy reunion with her is tested, and in that fateful moment, the course of the rest of his life is set. Only Kei’s final efforts to reach through, from beyond her grave, can hope to provide Sam with a second chance to find redemption and forgiveness.