Sixteen-year-old Mae Tam was born in China but moved to the U.S. when she was just a baby. All she wants is to be a normal American teenager, but being a musical prodigy has made that nearly impossible. Her father believes she was destined to become a world-class pianist and forces her to practice and compete constantly; Mae doesn't know if she even wants to play the piano anymore and resents his tyrannical rule over her life. In fact, they're barely on speaking terms. For now, all Mae wants to do is hang out with her friends, feed her designer shoe fetish, and maybe even score a date with Jake, the hottest guy in school. The heated debate over her life gets put on hold when Mae discovers secret documents proving she has a twin sister alive and hidden somewhere in communist China. Emboldened by the injustice of this news, Mae is determined to find her sister and set things right. Armed with only one clue, a woman's name and address on the back of an old picture, Mae plans an elaborate ruse to travel to China, find her sister and uncover the secrets of her parent's past - all without their knowledge. She learns for the first time of her father's involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests and the real reason behind his extreme control over her life. In China, Mae meets Junde Tang - a young man with a strange connection to her family. Sparks fly between the two as they travel the country to find her sister. Mae goes on the journey of a lifetime to find her sister but in the end discovers who she herself truly is.