Auntie Mei works as a first-month nanny for new mothers in the Bay Area, living in the mothers’ homes for only the first month of their newborn’s lives. Auntie Mei adheres to a strict schedule and takes care of both baby and mother. She is careful not to get too attached to either and never stays past the allotted month. New mother Chanel hires Auntie Mei to take care of her newborn while her husband, a much older man, is on a business trip in Shenzhen. She complains to Auntie Mei often about postpartum depression, but Auntie Mei does not believe her. Recently, Chanel explains, she had a dream she flushed her baby down the toilet. Chanel is surprised when Auntie Mei shares she has never had children of her own. A Vietnamese repair man named Paul comes to fix Chanel’s dishwasher. Auntie Mei asks him to return later to somehow solve the problem of birds stealing fish out of the pond in Chanel’s yard. When he leaves, Chanel and Auntie Mei talk until Auntie Mei massages Chanel’s breasts too forcefully for Chanel’s liking. Chanel vows she does not need anyone to take care of her and storms upstairs. Paul returns and builds electromagnetic wiring over the pond to keep the birds out. He gives Auntie Mei his phone number. When Chanel’s husband postpones his return, Auntie Mei must go grocery shopping for the mother and baby. She calls Paul, who drives Auntie Mei and the baby to the store and does the grocery shopping for them. As she and Paul talk, Auntie Mei remembers her childhood in China, her mother and grandmother’s death, and her late husband. Back at the house, Chanel ridicules Auntie Mei about Paul but then asks Auntie Mei to stay longer. Chanel describes her own Chinese upbringing and how she became pregnant with an older man’s child to punish her father for cheating on her mother. Auntie Mei listens to Chanel while she thinks about leaving with the baby. She thinks about how, at the next house, she’ll leave no trace of herself behind.