Known as Mai to her parents, Mai sees herself as the model 12-year-old girl who excels at her schoolwork and does not give her parents much grief. “My parents should be thanking the Buddha for a daughter like me: a no-lip gloss, no-short shorts twelve-year-old rocking a 4.0 GPA and an SAT-ish vocab who is team leader in track, science, and chess” (1). Though her family encourages her to explore her Vietnamese roots, Mai sees herself as an all-American California girl known as “Mia” to her friends.

At the novel’s beginning, Mai cannot wait for summer and to spend her days at the beach basking in the sun. Mai’s perfectly laid plans are interrupted when her father announces she will chaperone her grandmother’s trip to Vietnam to search for clues about her missing husband. Mai’s first-person narration realistically captures the typical, overly emotional response of a teenager who feels that her life has just been turned upside down. The reader is privy to all of Mai’s complaining and tantrum-like rants about how her parents have ruined her summer and potentially her life. However, from the moment Mai lands in Vietnam and sees people who look like her, all her preconceived notions about the country of her heritage are dissolved.