Hằng boards a bus to Amarillo alone, newly arrived in the US, determined to find her long-lost brother.

LeeRoy drives across Texas hoping to meet his idol, Bruce Ford, and train to become a cowboy.

Hằng misses her bus at a rest stop, and an elderly couple forces LeeRoy to drive her to Amarillo.

LeeRoy and Hằng arrive at the Amarillo address only to find a burnt-down, abandoned church.

Neighbor Mrs. Brown tells them Linh was renamed David and gives Hằng a new address in Canyon, Texas.

Hằng greets her brother at the Canyon ranch in Vietnamese, but he slams the door in her face.

Chú Quốc arrives demanding David back and claiming he was kidnapped; Cora furiously slams the door on them all.

LeeRoy blocks Chú Quốc's car with his truck to stop him from taking Hằng away, and both vehicles are damaged.

Neighboring rancher Mr. Morgan hires both Hằng and LeeRoy as summer help despite Cora's strong objections.

LeeRoy is hustled and badly injured at a midnight rodeo after local cowboys set him up on the wrong saddle.

Mr. Morgan punishes Hằng, LeeRoy, and David with heavy extra chores for sneaking out to the rodeo.

Chú Quốc pressures Hằng to testify that David was kidnapped so he can pursue legal custody, but she refuses to sign.

Hằng finally confesses the truth about the airport separation, ending Chú Quốc's hopes of legal recourse over David.

Atop the Ferris wheel at the summer fair, Hằng sings 'Butterfly Yellow' and David remembers the words and hand gestures.

LeeRoy picks up his repaired truck, says goodbye to Hằng and David, and drives away from the ranch.

Hằng arrives in Texas determined to reunite with her younger brother Linh, who was brought to America through Operation Babylift six years earlier. With the reluctant help of an aspiring cowboy named LeeRoy, she tracks Linh to a ranch in Canyon, Texas, only to discover he has no memory of her and wants nothing to do with her. Rather than give up, Hằng secures work on a neighboring ranch so she can stay close to him, while LeeRoy remains to earn money for his damaged truck. Over the summer, tensions escalate as their uncle pursues legal custody of Linh and his adoptive mother Cora fiercely resists any threat to her son. A pivotal confession about how Linh really left Vietnam forces everyone to accept the situation as it truly is. By summer's end, Hằng finds belonging in her brother's world and LeeRoy departs with a promise to return.

The core journey to find Linh and build a new life in Texas.

Hằng and her mother disguise themselves as monks and board a crowded fishing boat to escape Vietnam.

Pirates attack the fishing boat, killing Hằng's mother, who was disguised as the older monk.

Hằng washes ashore on a nearby island and is rescued and nursed back to health by the survivors there.

A second pirate attack forces Hằng to hide in a sea cave, where hookworms burrow into her skin.

A UNHCR helicopter rescues Hằng from the island and transports her to a refugee camp in the Philippines.

Arriving in Texas, Hằng reads Chú Quốc's expression at the airport and understands that Bà has died.

Cousin Angie drives Hằng to the bus station and helps her pack supplies despite knowing her father will be furious.

LeeRoy stops at a store to buy milk and is sneered at and called a rhinestone cowboy by real cowboys.

Mrs. Brown steals LeeRoy's wallet to guarantee his return and shows Hằng a Christmas card photo confirming the boy is David.

David's horse Linh is bitten by a rattlesnake, and David spends nearly two weeks sleeping in the stable beside her.

Hằng overhears David confide to LeeRoy that she is making a mess of everything and he doesn't want to leave.

The trio attempts to uproot a stubborn mesquite stump using LeeRoy's truck, but the tree refuses to budge.

Cora reprimands Mr. Morgan for overworking the young people after David returns home covered in mesquite needle scratches.

After Hằng's scars are exposed in the hailstorm, Cora takes her home, bathes her, and prepares her outfit for the fair.

Mr. Morgan offers Hằng a year-round gardening job, and Cora offers her room and board in exchange for cooking.

Before arriving in Texas, Hằng endured an extraordinarily dangerous journey escaping Vietnam by sea, surviving pirate attacks, her mother's violent death, and a painful hookworm infestation on a remote island. These experiences shaped the scarred, guarded young woman who boards a bus to Amarillo and is unexpectedly set on her path by an elderly couple who thrust her upon a reluctant LeeRoy. On the ranch, smaller but significant moments reveal the web of relationships and emotions that drive the story forward, including David's fierce bond with his horse and his open resistance to Hằng's presence. The summer's tensions are quietly defused through Cora's gradual acceptance of Hằng and her uncle's eventual retreat from his plans. By the end of the summer, Hằng's place within this unlikely family is cemented through practical arrangements that allow her to stay close to her brother. These events fill in the texture of the journey and give full meaning to the story's resolution.

The harrowing backstory and quieter turning points of the summer.

Hằng is turned away at the airport for being too old; she watches Linh be carried off and receives the Texas address.

Bà concludes Linh was kidnapped before hearing the full story, and Hằng never corrects her, silently carrying the guilt for years.

A tumor in Bà's leg prevents her from leaving Vietnam with Hằng and Mother, and she stays behind.

LeeRoy renames himself, packs his grandfather's bareback buckle, and sets out from Austin in a brand-new red truck.

LeeRoy teaches Hằng the word mesquite on the drive, and she surprises him by speaking English for the first time.

Hằng collapses from shock and exhaustion outside the burnt Amarillo church, and Mrs. Brown brings her to the porch to recover.

LeeRoy drives off and abandons Hằng at Mrs. Brown's porch, but returns after discovering his wallet has been stolen.

David agrees to speak with Hằng every day at lunch in exchange for LeeRoy secretly taking him to the midnight rodeo.

On the bumpy truck ride home from the rodeo, Hằng sings 'Butterfly Yellow' and hears David softly humming along.

During a hailstorm while packing melons, Hằng slips and falls, and her hookworm scars are exposed to everyone present.

As LeeRoy talks about Palo Duro Canyon, Hằng relives her most painful memories of the pirate attack and her mother's death.

Chú Quốc accepts that he cannot press Hằng or David into his care and abandons all plans for legal custody.

LeeRoy drops a crate in stunned silence when he first sees Hằng dressed and made up for the fair.

Hằng accepts that David is happy in his new life and resolves to stay near him rather than pull him away.

LeeRoy gives Hằng a tropical fruit guidebook inscribed with a remodeled Clint Eastwood quote promising he will come back.

The story's emotional core rests on a chain of revelations and turning points stretching from a chaotic airport departure to the quiet bonds formed across a Texas summer. Hằng's guilt over how Linh was taken, and Bà's longstanding misunderstanding about the event, set the entire six-year plan in motion and drive Hằng across oceans to find her brother. Key breakthroughs emerge not through dramatic confrontations but through quiet, unexpected exchanges — a borrowed word, a stolen wallet, a hummed melody, and a childhood song sung again on a Ferris wheel. LeeRoy's long monologue about Palo Duro Canyon becomes the catalyst for Hằng to finally confront and release the traumatic memories she has suppressed since leaving Vietnam. Hằng's confession about the airport and her uncle's resulting acceptance mark the turning point that allows the summer to end peacefully. Together, these moments chart a journey from guilt and grief toward acceptance and a quietly hopeful future.