The narrative alternates between Liv Kuo, a 35-year-old sous-chef in present-day Manhattan, and her grandmother, Yi-ping Wang, whose story begins in 1959, in Taichung, Taiwan. Yi-ping’s perspective is set during Taiwan’s period of martial law, an era known as the White Terror, when the island was under the authoritarian rule of the Kuomintang (KMT) party. The novel’s events are shaped by this political climate and by social traditions, including patriarchy, the cultural importance of sons, and the practice of adopting girls as future daughters-in-law.

In her Manhattan studio, chef Liv Kuo receives a FaceTime call from her grandmother, Yi-ping Wang, whom she calls Ah-Ma. Ah-Ma insists that she has just spotted her long-lost fourth daughter at a food stall, recognizing her by a distinctive heart-shaped birthmark. Liv initially suspects dementia, but Ah-Ma reveals what Liv has never been told: Decades ago, her husband Po-wei gave their daughter, Yili, away when she was a toddler. Liv has always believed that Ah-Ma had only three daughters (her mother, Felicia, being the youngest daughter) and a son, her uncle Winston.

Ah-Ma asks Liv to come to Taiwan and help search, mentioning that she has already taken a DNA test. Liv has become agoraphobic since a shooting at 852, the Asian fusion restaurant in Hell's Kitchen where she worked as a sous-chef. A gunman entered and shot her and her coworker Cat, who didn't survive.

The Wang family celebrates the end of Yi-ping’s postpartum confinement after the birth of her fifth child, her son. The Wangs hold political sway as waishengren, Chinese immigrants who came to Taiwan beginning in 1945, aligned with the KMT. Neighbors fear them, and the married women in the neighborhood kowtow to Yi-ping's mother-in-law, Abu, and the other Wang wives. Within the family hierarchy, Yi-ping holds no real standing. She has just given birth to her first son, Winston, after four daughters: Lun-Shan, Lun-Wen, Lun-Fei (who will later change her name to Felicia when she immigrates to America), and Yili, now 18 months old. The family stages a grand one-month ceremony to mark Winston's health and fortune.

After the festivities, Yi-ping cannot find Yili. A sister-in-law reveals that Po-wei has taken the toddler. When Po-wei returns without the child, he declares that Yili is better off. Abu confirms that he has given Yili away, convinced that the "fourth daughter" brought bad luck, and urges Yi-ping to accept the decision. Yi-ping collapses, understanding the limits placed on her by family and politics.

Back in present-day Manhattan, Liv agrees to help her grandmother find Yili and books a flight to Taiwan, using settlement money from the shooting. She calls her boss, Chef Wu, to tell him that she's leaving and doesn't know when she'll return. He encourages her to use the time to find her identity as a chef through connecting with her culture. Liv then calls her mother, Felicia, who confirms the family's KMT background and admits that she barely remembers Yili.

Liv reflects on how the shooting derailed her life and career, leaving her with panic attacks in crowds and tight spaces. She also thinks of her friend Amy, who worked alongside her at 852 and has taken time off to travel. Liv resolves to use the trip to rebuild her sense of agency and identity, both as a woman and as a chef.

Liv arrives at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where the crowd and the crash of fallen luggage trigger a panic attack. The terminal collapses into a flashback to the restaurant shooting where the gunman killed her coworker, Cat, and shot Liv in the shoulder before Chef Wu tackled him. In the present, Liv braces against the sensory assault and struggles to breathe.

A fellow passenger from her flight, Simon Huang, guides her through grounding techniques. Simon is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma; he lives in Astoria but is originally from Georgia. When they discover that they are both heading to Taichung, Liv offers to share her car, and they exchange numbers. The driver drops Simon off first; he's in Taiwan for the funeral of his best friend Ken's grandfather, a man who was like a grandfather to Simon as well. Simon tells her that Ken died by suicide. By the time Liv reaches her destination, she feels steadier than when she landed and is unexpectedly drawn to Simon.

At Ah-Ma’s apartment in Taichung, Liv listens as her grandmother recounts her grief in the aftermath of Yili's disappearance. In the days that followed, Yi-ping grew frantic, roaming the streets and neglecting her other children in a "red haze of fury and sorrow" (46). On the fourth day, a sister-in-law warned that if she continued to defy the household's authority, Abu and the Wangs could take the rest of her children.

Yi-ping bought Yili's favorite soup from a stall. Overcome by grief, she became convinced that if she could recreate the soup, with the vendor's secret ingredient, Yili would come home. Her tears fell into the broth as she asked for the recipe. Back at the Wang house, Yi-ping apologized to Abu, who forgave her and confided that she, too, once had a daughter taken away. Abu promised to learn the adoptive family's surname, giving Yi-ping a thread to follow.

Liv and Ah-Ma go to Yizhong Shopping Street in Taichung, where Ah-Ma believes she saw Yili. The night market crowds agitate Liv's anxiety, but Ah-Ma steadies her and shares her personal history: She left school at 10, married Po-wei at 16, and had all five of her children by age 23. Eventually, after their children were grown, she left Po-wei and immigrated to America.

Realizing they need a wider reach, they decide to use social media for the search. Ah-Ma mentions an old friend, Lim Ziyi, a former neighbor who helped her escape Taiwan years ago. Ziyi is now 88 and was formerly a human rights advocate. As they walk through the market, the food stalls stir Liv's sense of cultural connection as a chef, and she and Ah-Ma commit to taking the search public.

In 1961, after Abu learns the adoptive family's surname is Ong, Yi-ping scours Taichung’s streets for weeks. Exhausted, she collapses. Her neighbor, Lim Ziyi, finds her and takes her to a shop to eat. Over their meal, Ziyi reveals that Po-wei, a KMT operative, orchestrated the arrest and torture of a local physician, Dr. Li, a dissident who resisted KMT rule and sided with the communists.

Ziyi also confirms that Po-wei gave Yili to the Ong family as a tongyangxi, a child adopted to become a future daughter-in-law. Both Yi-ping and Ziyi are benshengren, native Taiwanese, married into waishengren households. They recognize their shared isolation as outsiders within their own families and form an alliance. Yi-ping notices fingerprint-like bruises on Ziyi's arm, signaling unspoken violence in Ziyi's home.

In the present, Ah-Ma tells Liv that Ziyi endured severe abuse from her husband. Liv shares that Chef Wu saved her life by tackling the gunman during the shooting. Simon texts, offering to connect them with a friend’s family to amplify their search on social media, and invites Liv to a night market.

Leafing through Yili’s mementos, Liv discovers Ah-Ma’s handwritten cookbook, which she began years before, perfecting dishes for Yili's return. Inspired, Liv decides to film Ah-Ma cooking the recipes and post them to social media. Ah-Ma adds that Ziyi eventually tracked down the Ong family, but by then, it was too late.