Twelve-year-old Cici has just moved from Taiwan to Seattle, and the only thing she wants more than to fit in at her new school is to celebrate her grandmother, A-ma’s, seventieth birthday together.

Since she can’t go to A-ma, Cici cooks up a plan to bring A-ma to her by winning the grand prize in a kids’ cooking contest to pay for A-ma’s plane ticket!

There’s just one problem: Cici only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.

And after her pickled cucumber debacle at lunch, she’s determined to channel her inner Julia Child. Can Cici find a winning recipe to reunite with A-ma, a way to fit in with her new friends, and somehow find herself too?