In 1954, nearly a decade after the atom bomb was dropped, Sadako Sasaki and her family are still reeling from the effects of the bomb. Sadako's grandmother was killed when the bomb dropped and the radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb causes leukemia, or as it is referred to in the book, 'the atom bomb disease'.
When 11 year old Sadako wins a race at her school, she dreams of becoming a runner and making her middle school running team. However, after the race, she becomes very dizzy, but doesn't say anything so as not to worry her family. Several weeks later, Sadako faints at school and is rushed to the hospital. After tests are run, Sadako learns that she has leukemia.
This discovery brings Sadako's world crashing down. She can't make the running team anymore, and now she has the dreaded 'atom bomb disease'. Sadako is stuck in the hospital as she gets sicker and sicker. One day her best friend Chizuko visits her and shows her how to make paper cranes. Chizuko tells Sadako a Japanese legend that if a person folds 1,000 paper cranes, they will be granted one wish. All Sadako wants to do is recover from her disease and join the running team, so she eagerly starts on the paper cranes.
Weeks go by and Sadako still hasn't finished the paper cranes. While she is getting sicker, her friends and relatives are folding paper cranes of their own to give to her. Sadako is slowly wasting away, but is more determined than ever to reach her goal of 1,000 paper cranes. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, Sadako dies in her sleep, having completed 644 cranes - 356 away from her goal. Her friends and family however, finished the cranes and buried them with her.
