The Tang family, living in their car, takes a job managing the Calivista Motel for owner Mr. Yao.

Mia takes over the front desk and posts a 'Mia Tang, Manager' sign to help her overwhelmed parents.

A drunk guest grabs Mia by the shirt collar at the front desk before Hank arrives and ejects him.

Mia discovers a Vermont essay contest where the grand prize is a free motel.

The police and Mr. Yao target Hank as their prime suspect when a guest's car is reported stolen.

Hank loses his job after police question his employer about the car theft accusation.

Mia secretly sets up a tip jar on the front desk to raise money for the essay contest entry fee.

Two thieves rob the motel and beat Mrs. Tang, sending the whole family rushing to the hospital.

Hank captures the thieves but is arrested, losing both his job prospects and his motel room.

Mia secretly writes a glowing reference letter and includes it in Hank's security guard job applications.

Mia sells her father's lucky pennies to cover the entry fee and mails her Vermont essay contest submission.

Yao announces he plans to sell the Calivista Motel, threatening the Tang family's future.

A rejection letter from the Vermont essay contest arrives, crushing Mia's dream of winning a motel.

Mia rallies the weeklies, contest losers, and a venture capitalist to pool enough money to buy the Calivista.

Jason reveals Yao is bluffing about a higher offer, and the Tangs successfully buy the Calivista for $300,000.

The Tang family escapes homelessness by taking a job managing the Calivista Motel, only to find that owner Mr. Yao's endless deductions keep them trapped in poverty. Mia takes charge of the front desk while secretly dreaming of winning a Vermont essay contest whose grand prize is a free motel. A string of crises—including a racist car theft accusation against Hank and a violent robbery that lands Mrs. Tang in the hospital—tests the family's resilience at every turn. Despite losing the essay contest, Mia refuses to abandon her dream and devises a bold plan to pool small contributions from dozens of struggling supporters. A crucial tip from Jason allows the Tangs to call Yao's bluff and make a winning offer on the Calivista. Together, these events trace the full arc of Mia's fight to turn an impossible dream into reality.

The headline events of Mia's journey from motel worker to motel owner.

Mr. Yao forces the Tangs to sign a restrictive six-page contract that severely limits the family's freedom.

Mia accidentally gives wrong wake-up calls, and Yao deducts the cost of two guest refunds from the Tangs' pay.

On her first day at school, Mia discovers Jason Yao is in her class and invents a story about a golden retriever.

Unable to use the broken washing machine, the Tang family stomps towels clean in a bathtub full of detergent.

Uncle Ming arrives at the motel seeking shelter after fleeing loan sharks who want to kill him.

Yao refuses Hank's request to work as the motel handyman, telling Mia in Chinese that Hank is trouble.

Mia receives a C-minus on a class essay, casting serious doubt on her plans for the Vermont writing contest.

Jason steals Mia's treasured green sparkle pencil, and the teacher mistakenly rules in his favor.

Mia coats Jason's pencils with a burning minty salve, making him cry in front of the entire class.

Xiao Zhang arrives at the motel after escaping through a tunnel from a restaurant that held his passport hostage.

Mia writes a fake legal letter threatening Zhang's employer with a lawsuit unless the immigrants' documents are returned.

Zhang's employer, frightened by Mia's letter, returns all confiscated passports and identification documents to his workers.

Mrs. Douglas invites Mia to read her immigration essay aloud to the class, and everyone applauds.

Every Chinese relative the Tangs contact refuses to lend money toward buying the Calivista Motel.

The Tangs and their friends celebrate buying the motel by jumping into the Calivista pool together.

From the moment the Tangs sign Yao's restrictive contract, life at the Calivista is a relentless series of setbacks and hard-won triumphs. Mia navigates school as the new Chinese girl in class while shouldering motel duties that no ten-year-old should face, including towels stomped clean in a bathtub and wrong wake-up calls that cost the family money. A rotating cast of immigrant visitors passes through the motel, each carrying their own story of exploitation, and Mia finds inventive ways to help them all. Her growing writing skills allow her to free Xiao Zhang from workplace slavery and earn class recognition for her immigration essay. Every obstacle—a stolen pencil, a failing grade, relatives refusing to help—ultimately sharpens her resolve rather than breaking it. The pool party that closes the story marks how far Mia and her entire community have traveled together.

The everyday struggles and small victories that shape life at the Calivista.

Hank warns Mia that Mr. Yao is 'anything but all right' shortly after the Tangs arrive at the motel.

Mia plays 'Für Elise' alone in the school auditorium, and Jason overhears her, astonished she knows how to play.

After Yao rejects all her real safety proposals, Mia posts a fake 'Security Camera Installed' sign in the office.

The motel cable breaks and a repairman comes to fix it; Mia is shocked to learn the repairman is Lupe's father.

Lupe explains that rich and poor families ride different roller coasters, making it nearly impossible for poor families to advance.

Jason confesses that he likes Mia; she rejects him and immediately fears he will retaliate.

Mia devises a baseball cap signal to warn Chinese immigrants that Yao is on the motel premises.

Mia asks each immigrant visitor who passes through the motel to help investigate the car theft suspects' addresses.

Mrs. Tang tells Mia she will never master English as well as native speakers, calling her a bicycle compared to cars.

A hospital doctor overrides the administrator and waives most of the Tang family's emergency medical bill.

Mia and Lupe discover the car's supposed owner driving the supposedly stolen vehicle to his own home.

The car owner threatens Mia and Lupe with harm if they tell anyone what they have seen.

The car owner is arrested for insurance fraud, and Mia demands the investigating officer apologize to Hank.

Mia's mother admits that she, not Mia, is the bicycle when it comes to mastering English.

Loan sharks arrive at the motel and demand the Tangs' passports as collateral for a $50,000 loan.

Mia arrives at the Calivista full of immigrant optimism, but early warnings from Hank hint at the injustices ahead. Unexpected revelations—Jason's surprise at her piano talent, the discovery of Lupe's hidden background, and Lupe's stark explanation of the poverty roller coaster—transform Mia's understanding of who gets a fair chance in America. She becomes increasingly bold, creating covert signals for immigrants, engineering justice for those wronged by racism, and confronting a car owner whose fraudulent scheme nearly destroyed Hank's life. Her mother's brutal bicycle analogy cuts deeply, but by the story's end Mrs. Tang reverses the insult by owning it herself, marking a profound emotional shift between mother and daughter. The moral stakes keep rising, from a doctor's quiet act of defiance against hospital bureaucracy to loan sharks demanding the family's passports as collateral. Together these turning points chart Mia's growth from a frightened child at a dangerous front desk into someone who believes her words can change the world.

The key discoveries and decisions that shift Mia's understanding of herself and America.