In the 1950s, on an island in Washington’s Puget Sound, a Japanese-American fisherman is accused of murder. Reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) has returned to his small fishing town to cover the trial and finds his boyhood love Hatsue (Youki Kudoh) is the wife of the accused.

Snow Falling on Cedars, based on the book by David Guterson, is a murder mystery tainted with prejudice and history—the aftermath of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The film is also a love story as the trial triggers Ishmael’s memories of his secret romance with Hatsue and the culture and families that separated them.