A film of horror and hope, it documents the life of Sakue Shimohira, age ten in 1945. Her emotionally wrenching experiences are depicted with archival footage and never-told-before accounts of what happened to her in the years that followed.

In one powerful moment she describes her sister's suicide as "the courage to die." Mrs. Shimohira, the survivor, found "the courage to live" and dedicate her life to abolishing nuclear weapons. Her story is interwoven with the still controversial decision to use the bomb, censorship within Japan about the bomb or its effects, discrimination against survivors, Cold War build-up of nuclear weapons, today’s growing nuclear proliferation issue and college students who become motivated to carry on her nuclear abolition message to young people around the world.