Helping her mama pack up a special balikbayan box for their relatives in the Philippines, a little girl sends along a secret wish to one day meet her family and to see and experience all the places where her mother grew up.

"When Jess was thirteen, her mother went for a walk and never returned. Jess and her older sister never found out what happened. Instead, they did what they hoped their mother might be doing: survive. As soon as she was old enough, Jess fled the small town of Knife River, wandering from girlfriend to girlfriend like a ghost in her own life, adrift and aimless in her attempts to outrun grief and confusion. But one morning, fifteen years later, she...

"Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Korea to the United States, she's felt her otherness. For a while, her English wasn't perfect. Her teachers can't pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes--especially her eyes--feel wrong. In high school, everything gets harder. Friendships change and end, she falls behind in classes, and fights with her mom escalate. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health...