August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki Hiroko Tanakasteps out onto her veranda, taking in the view of the terraced slopes leading up to the sky Wrapped in a kimono with three black cranes swooping across the back, she is twenty-one, in love withthe man she is to marry In a split second, the world turns white In the next, it explodes with the sound of fire and the horror of realisation In the numbing aftermath of a bomb that obliterates everything she has known, all that remains are the bird-shaped burns on her back, an indelible reminder of the world she has lost In search of new beginnings, she travels to Delhi two years later