Two children- Lark and her brother, Termite, a child unable to walk and talk but full of radiance. Two women- Lola, their mother, and Nonie, their aunt, who for mysterious reasons is the one to raise them. Lark and Termite imaginatively enters the hearts and thoughts of a family, from their home in 1950s West Virginia to Korea, where their father has been sent to fight.It is a story of the power of loss and love, the echoing ramifications of war, family secrets, dreams and ghosts, and the unseen, almost magical bonds that unite and sustain us.