Serene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom's, but for now she's an intern at her mom's fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother's business overnight while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. Lian Chen moved from China to Serene's mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn't fit in at school, where kids mispronounce his name. Worlds apart in the high school hierarchy, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms.