Emerson, a man of Taiwanese descent living in the U.S., who speaks no Chinese, travels to Taiwan to scatter his mother's ashes. He must convey a disputed inheritance to his brother who is involved in the Taiwanese criminal underworld and who conceals a secret which has alienated him from his family. Emerson hopes to appease both the living and the dead by discovering his brother's secret and save what is left of his family. This is a darkly comic tale of crime and contrition about what is means to be a foreigner, even in one's own family.