Sadako Sasaki experiences the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the age of four. She is buried under the rubble. Her brother Shigeo is able to rescue her, and neither of them is harmed. Ten years later, Sadako, an enthusiastic cyclist, suddenly becomes weak during a race, and it is revealed that she is suffering from radiation sickness. According to an old Japanese legend, one becomes healthy by folding 1,000 paper cranes. Sadako clings to the legend and to life, even when the doctors have given up on her. Undeterred, she works on the cranes, but on the 990th one, her strength fails her. Austrian Children's and Youth Book Prize.