A 29-year-old Chinese American and fourth generation San Franciscan flees Reagan-led America to the P.R.C. to fulfill a life goal to live in China for a year. A burned-out activist seeking inspiration from the socialist utopia in her ancestral homeland, she instead witnesses shocking authoritarianism and apathy as she travels off the beaten path. Seeing her dream dissolve, she detours to Tibet, the remote, spiritual civilization which has recently opened to visitors for the first time in history. Befriended by an English-speaking young local with dreams of the west, she finds a nation emerging from near wholesale destruction. Nonetheless, over her two-month stay, she grows fascinated with the culture and the people’s remarkable spiritual faith. 

      At summer’s end, she completely changes course, deciding to follow the Tibetans to their capital in exile in the Indian Himalayas, Dharamsala. Immersed in Tibetan culture, she explores Buddhism and meditation—culminating in an unforgettable private audience with the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. Her exploration then leads her to the holiest site in the Buddhist world, where her deepening meditation practice yields shattering insights, and she finds the inspiration she has long sought.