Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.

Eight-year-old Gideon Mercer loves to help people, but she has leukemia. When her illness goes into remission at Christmas, she is sure this miracle is a gift from God. So to celebrate, she and her father volunteer to serve meals at a mission for the homeless. She meets dirty, sullen Earl Badgett there, and although he refuses her friendship, she gives him a small gift. This one act will lead to a series of miracles that will change the rest of Gideon's...