Diana, Justin, Errol and Vivian were always told that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got A's and attended a good university --- only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Now they’re unemployed and stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace --- once the niehgborhood golden child, now a dropout --- asks to make a documentary about the crew, they agree. But then the video, "Bad Asians," goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform. Suddenly, millions of people know them as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control further derails their plans for the lives they’d always imagined, the friends must face harsh truths about themselves and coming of age in the new millennium.

When disaster strikes at the Beijing Duck House, each character is forced to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay. Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father’s homespun establishment for a fancier one. Jimmy’s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny’s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father’s absence and a teenager’s silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their 30-year friendship into something else. And when Nan’s son, Pat, and Annie find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.