Meredith Efken, the mother of an adoptive daughter from China, develops a poignant contemporary story about a family conflict that explores themes of abandonment from the perspective of both the child and the adoptive parent involved in international adoption. After surviving an emotionally abusive childhood, Meg struggles to redefine who she is but is haunted by her past. In adopting a child from China, she hopes to prove to herself that she isn't the self-centered person her parents have always told her she is. She longs to give that child the love and unconditional acceptance she never felt in her own family. Her husband, Lewis, is an established physicist who has it all except the love of the mother who abandoned him. He never wanted to be a father but doesn't want to deny Meg the only thing she ever begged of him, even though he is terrified about the prospect of becoming a parent. And yet, despite their best intentions, Meg and Lewis find that things go poorly. Their daughter, Eva, rejects them as parents and they are left wondering whether they will ever be able to connect with her in the loving, intimate way they'd imagined.