Curt is a college professor who gets a grant to fund a summer off from classes to work on the next “Great American Novel.”  He lives with his lover of several years, a pediatrician of Chinese descent named Lee.  While they’re celebrating Curt’s grant, Lee’s mother calls to tell him she wants to visit.  Curt wants to meet her, but Lee isn’t sure that’s such a good idea.  His mother is of a different generation, a different culture even, and doesn’t speak much English.  Still, Curt insists.

Once Lee’s mother arrives, Curt finds himself struggling with writer’s block.  Because Mrs. Gui doesn’t speak to him (but whether it’s because she can’t or won’t, he doesn’t know), he feels like an outsider in his own home when Lee and his mother converse in Cantonese and leave him out of the conversation, and even his sex life suffers with Lee’s mother in the bedroom next to theirs.

Can Curt and Mrs. Gui move past their cultural differences to see that they both love Lee and have his best interests at heart?