"A fictionalized account of the early years of Donaldina Cameron's work with the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in San Francisco, California, which worked to rescue Chinese girls and women from slavery conditions in the late 1800s through the early 1900s"-- Donaldina Cameron arrived at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in 1895 intending to teach sewing skills to young Chinese women immigrants. She discovers that the job is much more complicated...

Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade...

"After years of hard work, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family--to China! A total dream come true. Mia can't wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing, witnessing some of the big changes China's going through, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life, like . . . 1. Lupe's taking classes at the high school! And Mia's own plans to be a big writer are . . . stuck....

Twelve-year-old Ben's unexpected success outside the classroom causes the CIA to activate him for a mission to become friends with Jessica Shang, daughter of a suspected Chinese crime boss.