Meifang takes her six-year-old daughter, Joni, to a park and recounts a story of when her father took her and her siblings to go see some monkeys during her childhood in Taiwan. Joni interrupts when bored and makes her mom give her boosts on the swing set. Twelve years later, Meifang makes preparations for the departure of her estranged father, who had come from overseas to visit. While trying to convince a teenage Joni to delay attending her end-of-year track banquet with friends so Joni can spend more time with her grandfather, Meifang accidentally spills hot soup on her. Ouch. Joni goes to change in her room. Meanwhile, Meifang’s father chastises Meifang for her parenting practices and implies it’s disrespectful of Joni to choose her friends over her grandfather. Joni overhears the exchange and forces Meifang to choose: will Meifang keep her head down and continue listening to the men in her life, or will she stand up for her daughter and for herself? Will Joni be successful in her attempts to get through to mother, or will she grow frustrated and take the next train out of her small hometown?