While going through her elderly mother’s things, Lindsey Casselton discovers a Polaroid photo of her mother in the arms of a stranger. The photo is dated nine months before Lindsey was born. Her mother has Alzheimer’s and the father she grew up with is dead, forcing Lindsey to start a life-changing journey on her own to learn about her birth father—a CIA operative in Vietnam, who went missing at the end of the war.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Nate Huong has a challenging youth and eventually finds his way as a restaurant owner with his Vietnamese mother Mai as head chef. When he goes to his mother’s homeland, Nate learns disturbing new details about his American father—a CIA operative, who was last seen at Mai’s family’s homestead.
The two half siblings meet in Vietnam by chance during Tet. After combining their knowledge and uncovering more at an explosive gathering with Nate’s Vietnamese family, they learn what really happened to their father, Steve Nathan.