When his folks host a Vietnamese family that has come to settle in their town, Harvey enjoys Americanizing twelve-year-old Tuan.
Armed with a stack of adhesive labels, he plasters the kitchen with labels so his new pupil can learn English. He renames the boy Tom Win for junior high and feeds vocabulary drills into the basement computer.
At school, Tuan quickly outscores their seventh-grade classmates in advanced math and teaches playground challengers how to shoot marbles. Yet while Harvey pushes hot dogs and local slang, his guest holds tight to his own family memories.
A nighttime prank with toilet paper at the town pig statue brings the local police to the curb, forcing both boys to reckon with the mess together.