Yifeng has come to America to study to be an engineer and then return to China. But soon his name is Ralph Chang, and he has been joined by his ambitious sister, Theresa. She in turn finds him a perfect wife in beautiful and docile Helen. Together they set out to make the American dream come true in every way: making money in fast food, buying a bargain house in the suburbs, pursuing excursions into adultery. Theirs is the story of a family coming together and coming apart, and of miracles real and imagined, as Gish Jen puts her unique stamp on the American dream in this astonishingly accomplished debut.