Moonlight illuminates Chai and his wife, Ding, who enjoy the view from their backyard deck and recite Chinese poetry to each other. Chai, a disillusioned former Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, has achieved a version of the immigrant's dream: he works as a banker in New York, is the father of a healthy baby daughter, and enjoys a contented marriage. To Ding's amusement, Chai has developed an obsession with the life and maxims of Calvin Coolidge.

For Chai, the long-dead president epitomizes the hard-working, frugal virtues of America in contrast to the moral squalor and hypocrisy of China's Communist leaders.

But one day a chance discovery leads Chai astray. He learns that a lover from his youth - Selina, now Mrs. Yoy - lives in Boston with her husband and their son. Under the cover of doing Coolidge research in New England, Chai arranges to meet her. Selina's beauty stands in contrast to Ding's sensible appearance, and her son, a young man, seems cast in Chai's very image. The staid banker's heart is inflamed by the implications of this resemblance.

Confused by his emotions, he determines to revive the affair. Chai's passionate pursuit of his youthful love blinds him to Ding, whose vision is more acute. How Ding schemes to win back her wayward husband - and teach him necessary truths about love and life - forms the beguiling conclusion to this tale.