In Chinese the word for the United States, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." When seven-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. For five years she lived undocumented after immigrating with her parents to New York City. Shocked at where her family fits in comparison to their status as educated elites in China, she works...

"As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life. Nearly twenty years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan tech startup, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, and on the brink of losing...