The daughter of American missionaries, twenty-six-year-old Nicci Bradford must confront her life and her future in the United States. To help her, she has philosophy and insight from classic Kung-Fu movies starring Jackie Chan. Although she feels a strong connection with a rootless wanderer named Ethan, who works at a nearby Boston coffee shop, Nicci finds herself being sucked into the shallow world of “proper” and “normal” in US society. In the end, she is faced with a dilemma: to go along and become the proper all-American woman with the beige house on the cul-de-sac or to break free and follow her dreams.