On Friday August 15th, 1997, two Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families who have nothing else in common. The Donaldsons: decent Brad and homespun Bitsy, two sets of grandparents and a host of relatives, take delivery with characteristic razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba and carefully assimilated Sami, with his Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam. 'Arrival Day' is marked every year when their two extended families celebrate together with increasingly competitive parties: tiny, delicate Susan, stocky Jin-ho and, later, her new little sister Xiu-Mei, take roots, become American. Meanwhile, Maryam contrarily preserves her 'outsider' status, as if to prove that, despite her passport, she is only a guest in this bewildering country.