Yen is a young woman who murdered her abusive father. She’s back from prison and moves in with Ai-Lee, her mother, who has a new boyfriend who isn’t much better. When a mysterious little boy, the son of her dead father’s mistress, arrives on the scene, life changes for these two damaged women.

Ai-Lee runs a grocery store, and is a blunt woman who is only moderately grateful to her daughter; Yen is timid and trying to put her life back together. Soon, Yen is taking acting lessons at a local school, when she meets a mysterious woman with a secret: she is Yen’s father’s mistress, and has his son, Yen’s half-brother. Taiwanese director Tom Lin Shu-yu has worked with some of the best directors in his country, and attended grade school in Minnesota. Yen and Ai-Lee is a collaboration with his wife, Kimi Hsia, who plays Yen.