A young Chinese girl who lives in America with her family goes to pick up her grandmother at the airport. Her grandmother immediately begins to tell her stories, and says that the young girl had loved her so much as a baby, more than she'd loved her own parents. Over the course of the year, the young girl does become more attached to her grandmother, but then her grandmother returns to China, called back by her husband who claims that he is dying and needs her there with him. Two years later, Grandmother returns, but this time the girl is wise to her, and doesn't believe her stories. Her two-year-old brother, however, becomes extremely attached to their grandmother. The third time she comes, three years later, the young girl tries to warn her brother not to get so attached again, but it doesn't work. The grandmother gets in the way of their close sibling bond. This time, the grandmother goes to work at a factory nearby where she folds dumplings, and organizes a successful protest for higher wages. The girl is afraid that her brother will continue to be attached to this delusional woman, who she believes to be delusional. Their Grandmother leaves when she gets knocked down by a neighbor's dog and needs stitches. The hospital bills are outrageous. She overstays her visa and begins to sleepwalk. Her sleepwalking becomes so severe that she causes a four-car pileup in their street. The fourth and final time the Grandmother comes to visit, the two siblings are older — seven and seventeen years old — and neither of them want to blindly adore her the way that she wants them to. The girl is old enough to see her Grandmother for what she really is; a lonely old woman who is a product of the political and social climate of her lifetime. Though she feels compassion for the woman, she also is repulsed by her blatant need for love and affection. Finally, the grandmother leaves for a final time, called back again by her husband, who says he has been diagnosed with cancer. She wails as she is driven back to the airport, and the children watch her go from the driveway.