In 1983 seventh-grader David Da-Wei Horowitz has a lot to worry about--his bar mitzvah is coming soon, his Jewish and Chinese grandmothers argue about everything, his teammates for the upcoming trivia contest, Scott and Hector, do not like each other, he is beginning to notice girls, and Scott has persuaded him to begin digging a fallout shelter just in case the Cold War heats up.

Lillia, her younger sister Naomi, , and their father fled Warsaw in 1940. Shanghai was one of the few places that would accept Jews without visas. She worries about how their mother, Alenka, would find them. Lillia finds an outlet for her artistic talent by making puppets, remembering the happy days in Warsaw when they were circus performers. She makes friends with Wei, a Chinese boy, and finds work as a performer at a "gentlemen's club" without her...