The novel begins with Kimberley Chang looking back on her life. She explains that when she and Ma moved to the United States, she barely spoke English. She passes by a dress shop and sees a young girl inside. This girl, the reader will learn, is the daughter of Matt, Kim's adolescent sweetheart.

Kim and her mother arrive in New York City from Hong Kong. Kim's Aunt Paula, Ma's older sister, sets them up with an apartment in a rundown neighborhood in Brooklyn. The apartment is in a building owned by Mr.N, for whom Aunt Paula works, and is uninhabited aside from Kim and Ma.Their apartment has a pest infestation, no windowpanes, and no central heat. It seems completely unlivable despite Aunt Paula's insistence that the previous tenants have only just moved out. Kim wonders how her mother, who wipes her chopsticks and cups at restaurants before using them, to make sure they are clean, will live in this place. She wants to go home.

Kim flashes back to their first week in America, when they are staying with Aunt Paula and her family on Staten Island. Aunt Paula has told Ma and Kim that they willbe living with she and Uncle Bob, taking care of their kids while they worked at the factory, but on their first morning, she informs them that she will not need their help due to Ma's recent bout of tuberculosis.