Ai is a young woman growing up in Whitlam, a small town in Australia largely populated by Asian refugee families, with her older brother Yan, her best friend Brigitte, her boyfriend Bowie, and his friend Tin, among other friends in their small circle in high school. When Sying, a politically-minded friend in Ai's circle, incurs the racist wrath of two white men, everyone's life is forever changed when the men's cruel acts of intimidation spiral into violence. Ai finishes high school in a daze and then leaves for college, determined to leave Whitlam and its memories behind for good. A few years later, when Ai is 20, she's barely surviving college. After running herself ragged to win a competition for the Art & Technology Centre, working odd jobs and unable to complete her classwork, she realizes she is unable to continue and returns home, finally ready to revisit the past - and the love she's been running away from since she was 17.