“Every year, Kinga and his classmates wait for the black-necked cranes to return to the kingdom of Bhutan, deep in the Himalayas. Every year, fewer cranes return. Together with classmates, Kinga creates and performs a dance to honor the cranes and also remind people of their duty to care for them”
Taken from her small, impoverished Chinese village and forced to sew in a New York City sweatshop, thirteen-year-old Suyin is visited by the cranes with which she has a strange connection and learns she is the daughter of the Crane Queen, who needs her help.
A lonely Japanese magician gains friends through the paper crane that he brings to life but then must set free.
After Jiro encounters a life-like garden statue of a tall bird, he falls asleep and dreams of the story his mother once told him about a grateful crane.