A girl in China in the 1920's, Margaret is not worth educating, and certainly not worth the price of a steamship ticket to America. Begging her father not to abandon her, Margaret hopes to immigrate from China to the USA with the rest of her family. Descended from families that broke away from tradition in extreme ways, Margaret faces a life none of her ancestors could possibly have imagined. Her mother, with unbound feet, constantly defies tradition. Margaret's journey takes her from riding in jinrickshas to being a foreign student at the University of California. She contends with a series of Asian American issues in rapidly changing times and increasingly lives in two worlds. She is confronted with issues that her very Chinese parents face, as well as her own identity as a Chinese national in an American setting rife with anti-Asian sentiment.