The book Snow Falling on Cedars is set on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, off of the Washington coast. A Japanese-American fisherman named Kabuo Miyamoto is one of the main characters in the story, and he is on trial for the murder of another fisherman, Carl Heine, who was a Caucasian war veteran. The trial begins on December 6, 1954, one day shy of the 13th anniversary of the bombing op Pearl Harbor. Anti-Japanese sentiment is running high around the city, and Kabuo's silence and stiffness in court are mistaken for remorselessness by many of the town's residents. Due to the anti-Japanese sentiments, Kabou and his wife feel that he will not be able to receive a fair trial on their small island, however they are unable to receive a change of venue.
The murdered fisherman, Carl Heine, tended to keep his feelings securely locked up inside of him, and he seldom spoke. In stark contrast, Ishmael Chambers is another war veteran who shares his feelings freely. Ishmael lost his arm in the war, and he is the editor of the San Piedro Review, which is the island's newspaper. One part of his life remains locked up, however: a relationship he had with a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue when he was younger. He is unable to understand why Hatsue unexpectedly ended their relationship, and then married Kabuo. Later on, we discover that she was pressured into marrying within her own ethnic group by her mother and Mrs. Shigemura, in order to fulfill her duty to her family.
During the trial, the novel repeatedly flashes back in time. One such flashback shows Carl's mother, Etta Heine, taking advantage of the Miyamoto family, reneging on an agreement made by her husband to sell seven acres of land to Kabuo's father, Zenhichi. Instead, Etta sold the land to a white farmer, Ole Jurgensen. Kabuo decided that his only course of action would be to wait until Ole was ready to sell the land, and buy it then.