Friendship dolls are being sent to Japan as a peacemaking gesture. Eleven year old Electra (Lexie), Lewis is helping her school buy a friendship doll for Japan. She lives with her Grandma and Grandpa because her mom lives in San Francisco as a singer for a night club. Her dad was killed in an automobile accident when Lexie was younger. Lexie would love to go to San Francisco to live with her Mom but her Grandma describes her mom as a flapper and her mom's new husband said that a young girl should not live with parents that sleep all day and work all night. Lexie thinks there is no way to get to her mom until one day she hears a girl named Louise talking, ( Louise is not what you would call a friend of Lexie's,) Louise said that the person who writes the best letter will get to go to San Francisco and watch as the dolls leave America.  At this news Lexie decided that she is going to write the best letter and go to San Francisco to live with her mom. She writes her letter and when it is time to turn in the letter it isn't there. Does Lexie find the letter and is it the best?  You can find out by reading Ship of Dolls by Shirley Parenteau.