Bird receives a letter addressed to his childhood nickname containing only a drawing of many cats from his long-absent mother.

After a university lockdown ends, Bird sees 'Bring Back Our Missing Hearts' spray-painted in a giant heart outside the dining hall.

Bird visits the public library seeking his mother's banned poetry and a children's book about cats, but finds neither on the shelves.

A stranger shouts a racial slur at Bird on the street, and his father punches the man in the face.

Bird's father shows him that Margaret's surname 'Miu' means 'domesticated cat' written in Mandarin symbols.

Bird enters his long-abandoned family home and finds a hidden note in his childhood cupboard containing a New York City address.

The public librarian confesses to Bird that she secretly helps reunite children with parents who were separated under PACT.

Bird arrives in New York City's Chinatown and feels powerful for the first time, surrounded by so many other Asian people.

Bird witnesses a white man assault an Asian woman walking her dog on the street, then flees when the attacker notices him.

The Duchess drives Bird to a dilapidated house where he is finally reunited with his mother Margaret after years apart.

Margaret begins telling Bird about her childhood, the economic Crisis, her meeting Ethan, and how PACT rose to power.

Margaret and Bird disguise themselves and walk through New York City together, secretly attaching hidden bottle caps to surfaces across the city.

Bird accuses Margaret of hypocrisy when she considers abandoning her mission; she promises they will see each other again.

Margaret activates thousands of hidden bottle cap speakers and recites the stories of separated families to millions of listening New Yorkers.

Domi arrives at the Connecticut cabin with Ethan, and Bird vows to rebuild his mother's poetry by tracking down those who knew it.

Bird lives a constrained life in Cambridge after his Chinese American mother Margaret disappeared years ago to avoid arrest under PACT. When a mysterious letter filled with cat drawings arrives, Bird decodes hidden clues left by his mother and makes a dangerous journey alone to New York City. In New York, he witnesses anti-Asian violence firsthand before being guided by a secret network of activists to a reunion with Margaret. Margaret tells Bird how the economic Crisis, PACT's rise, and the viral spread of her poetry forced her underground, and together they plant the pieces of her final mission across the city. Margaret broadcasts the stories of separated families through thousands of hidden speakers, moving millions of New Yorkers to tears before police close in and she is captured. Though Margaret's fate is left uncertain, Bird refuses despair and commits to keeping her memory alive by reconstructing her banned poetry word by word.

Bird's quest to find his missing mother and Margaret's city-wide broadcast.

Bird's school has removed all books from its shelves, replacing them with sponsor-funded computers deemed safer for students.

University trees are decorated with a red web and dangling dolls in a second silent anti-PACT protest staged on campus.

Ethan comes home late after being ordered by the FBI to pull books checked out by a lawyer under investigation.

An elderly Asian man is refused service at a pizzeria, and Ethan warns Bird to distance himself from anything Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

Bird uses his father's ID card to sneak into the university library and secretly locate the children's book about cats.

Margaret's parents immigrated from Kowloon to America, where someone set a bomb in their mailbox, prompting the family to assimilate carefully.

Margaret meets Ethan during the Crisis, and the two bond by reading dictionaries aloud and playing with language together.

Margaret's father is killed in a racist attack, and her mother dies of a heart attack shortly after, both victims of Crisis-era xenophobia.

PACT is established following an attempted assassination of an anti-China senator by a man assumed to be Chinese American.

Margaret's poetry collection is published during her pregnancy, but it reaches very few readers at the time of its release.

Margaret visits the parents of Marie—the protester killed carrying her quote—to apologize; they welcome her and share memories of their daughter.

Librarian Mrs. Adelman introduces Margaret to the full scale of PACT-driven family separation, prompting Margaret to begin documenting these families' stories.

Margaret arranges for Sadie—Bird's former school friend who escaped foster care—to live safely in Domi's home.

Domi drives Bird and Sadie to her cabin in Connecticut while Margaret stays behind to execute her city-wide mission.

Left alone in the Connecticut countryside, Bird and Sadie run freely outdoors and play, experiencing unmonitored childhood for the first time in years.

As Bird navigates daily life under PACT, subtle signs of the regime's reach appear everywhere—from his bookless school to casual acts of racism against Asian Americans on the street. Through Margaret's storytelling, readers learn the full arc of her past: her family's immigration, their targeting by xenophobic violence, and her unlikely romance with linguist Ethan during the chaos of the Crisis. The deaths of Margaret's parents at the hands of racist attacks drive her deeper into activism, while PACT's establishment after a political assassination attempt reshapes American society around her. Margaret builds her underground network methodically, documenting the stories of separated families and eventually securing safety for Sadie, Bird's long-missing school friend. The novel's quieter moments—Bird and Sadie's carefree afternoon in the Connecticut countryside—remind readers what PACT has stolen from children caught in its crossfire, and what recovery might someday look like.

The quieter moments shaping Bird's world and Margaret's hidden past.

Bird notices a tiny cupboard drawing hidden in the corner of his mother's cat illustration, recognizing it as a clue from a childhood story.

Sadie shows Bird a newspaper article revealing that his mother's poetry book became a rallying tool for anti-PACT protesters.

Bird watches the public librarian secretly remove a handwritten note from inside a returned book, revealing a hidden communication network.

Bird's father admits he blamed Sadie to shield Bird when police found him near PACT posters; Sadie vanished from school a week later.

After being called a racial slur, Bird understands that his father's strict rules exist because being visibly Asian makes him a target.

Bird leaves his father a note and boards a bus alone to New York City, mirroring his mother's disappearance years before.

Margaret reveals she fled the family specifically because Bird's teacher warned her that Family Services planned to remove Bird from the home.

A Black student named Marie is killed at an anti-PACT protest while carrying a sign that quotes one of Margaret's poems.

After Marie's death, Margaret's publisher is ordered to stop printing her book and a PACT supporter posts her personal address online.

Ethan agrees to publicly distance himself from Margaret's views and burns her books to protect Bird from government suspicion.

Margaret joins the underground librarian network, which hides handwritten notes inside circulating library books to track the locations of separated families.

A Native American mother tells Margaret that governments forcibly removing children from families is not new—her community has endured it for generations.

Margaret discovers the work of Soviet poet Anna Akhmatova, who secretly continued writing subversive poetry even when her government forbade it.

Police surround Margaret's base while she is still broadcasting; she smashes her laptop just as officers storm the building.

Ethan finds Bird's farewell note and rereads Margaret's old children's books, finally understanding that his son left to find her.

Bird's journey begins not with grand action but with quiet observation—a hidden image in a drawing, a librarian secretly passing notes, a dawning awareness of what it means to be Asian under PACT—and each small revelation pushes him closer to the truth about his mother and himself. His solo departure for New York marks a decisive break, mirroring his mother's own disappearance and signaling his transformation from passive child to active seeker. Margaret's backstory is defined by a cascade of turning points: the death of Marie, the overnight destruction of her reputation, Ethan's painful agreement to burn her books, and her decision to flee rather than let the government take Bird. Through her work with the underground librarian network, Margaret encounters the deeper history of forced family separation and finds purpose in honoring those stories. The novel closes on twin crises—Margaret's capture and Bird's anxious wait—but Bird converts both into a determined vow, choosing to fight for his mother's legacy by preserving her words.