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Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a secluded life with his beloved but broken father, a former linguist who now stacks books in the university library. Bird knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, or wander off too far. After years of economic instability and violence, their lives are governed by strict laws written to preserve "American culture". To maintain peace and restore prosperity, authorities are now allowed to take in the children of dissidents, especially those of Asian descent, and libraries are forced to remove books deemed unpatriotic -- including the works of Bird's mother, Margaret, a Chinese-American poet who left the family when Bird was nine.

Bird grew up disowning his mother and her songs, he doesn't know her work or what happened to her. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a mysterious drawing, he is drawn into the search for her. The journey will take him through the ranks of the underground network of librarians back to the many folktales his mother told him when he was a child, to the lives of the children who were taken, and, finally, to New York, where a new act of defiance may be the start of much-needed change.

Poetic and chilling, captivating and empathetic, Our Missing Hearts undoubtedly reaches literary perfection.