A white American man and a Chinese-American woman visit the woman's family in China. After the woman's cousin compares the woman's Chinese to a toddler's, she stops speaking English and decides she wants to stay in China for awhile before returning, to reconnect with her family and her place of birth. Upon returning to the United States alone, the man, initially disinterested and unmotivated, begins to learn Chinese.

As the People's Liberation Army ravages China, a resentful young woman charged with a strange mission leaves home to work in the city. Once there, she discovers terrifying connections between her rich new employer and the village she left behind.

Told in 5 parts, the Spring Festival takes us to Jiangnan, Chin. We meet a newly turned 1-year-old, a drone privacy invasion, matchmaking clones, a holographic classmate, and a runaway visit to see the moon.

In a world brimming with magical realism, a young girl in Communist China confronts a malicious member of the Red Guard when he threatens her ailing grandmother.

In a Chinese village during the Qing Dynasty, a crippled man acts as a lawyer for the poor with the help of the trickster Monkey King, but his peaceful life is turned upside down when he comes into possession of a book that details atrocities committed by the government.

Young woman recounts her childhood growing up in China in the 1970s and meeting the old maid that the village has ostracized, this encounter forever changes her.

A Chinese woman reminisces on her relationship with her geologist husband, reuniting with him after a work-separation and his eventual death by sickness. Their communication centers around the husband's assistant, the Human Phonograph, who sings on command.

An aging couple living in post-Mao Beijing hide their disabled daughter from the world, and help a man conceal his affair as their own marriage is eroded by a secret.

A Chinese American woman living in contemporary Wisconsin plans out a vacation to England rather China, her usual destination. The thought of abandoning her home country takes her back to the more difficult moments of her life, from her estrangement from her parents to her failed marriage.

Workers at an American franchise restaurant located in southern China learn of the different ways American capitalism exploits them and creates food waste, leading them to rebel against their bosses.