When Tzu, Wa and Chen come to New York City in the summer of 1980 to study, they find themselves in a strange land far, far away from life in communist China. Consuming a heavy daily diet of American T.V., they are captivated by the cacophonous culture surrounding them. They make friends with their next-door neighbor Dexter, his sometimes girlfriend Suzanne and the struggling filmmaker Billy. They party. One falls dangerously in love. But a brutal mugging and an ex-boyfriend's crazed jealousy plunge them into a state of cultural confusion and fear. When, on December 8, 1980, John Lennon is murdered, the trio fatefully confronts the social violence that surrounds them.