Mia is a bright and determined 11-year-old Chinese immigrant who lives in Anaheim, California, in 1994. She helps her parents manage the Calivista Motel, which they bought the year earlier. Mia is focused on enabling her family to succeed in their business. Whenever she is faced with obstacles, she always finds a workaround.

Mia’s greatest aspiration is to become a writer, and she makes great strides in mastering the nuances of her adopted language. Her greatest trial throughout the novel is to keep her best friend’s father from being deported. She does so by using the power of the pen. Mia proves herself to be a loyal friend, an effective community organizer, and an advocate for the rights of all immigrants by the time the story ends.

Lupe is Mia’s best friend and classmate. She is also 11, a whiz at math, and wants to be an artist when she grows up. In the first book in the series, Lupe acted as Mia’s guide in navigating American culture because the Garcia family had already been in America for eight years.

However, Lupe needs Mia’s help in this story because her mother is stranded in Mexico, and her father has been arrested as an unauthorized immigrant.