Joy, a six-year-old, comes home with a note pinned to her chest, which her mother throws away. Over a dinner of cabbage and chitterlings eaten on the floor, Joy thinks about her father's job, the kids who tease her at school, and her father's warning to never speak Lao. Later, Joy arrives at school wearing a green jogging suit to see that everyone else is dressed formally; her teacher asks if her parents read the note the school sent home. Joy lies to protect her parents, and lies again when her mother picks her up and asks why everyone is dressed up. Joy's teacher sends her home with a book to read, and she practices that night with her father, who teaches her to pronounce the word "knife" with a hard k. In school the next day, Joy has to read out loud, and people make fun of her pronunciation. But her teacher gives her a reading prize anyway, which she displays proudly to her father as she resolves not to correct his pronunciation of "knife."