The setting is 1990s contemporary Taipei, Taiwan. Mr. Chu, a widower who is a master Chinese chef, has three unmarried daughters, each of whom challenges any narrow definition of traditional Chinese culture: Chu Jia-Jen, a school teacher nursing a broken heart who converted to Christianity; Chu Jia-Chien, a fiercely independent airline executive who carries her father's culinary legacy, but never got to pursue that passion; and Chu Jia-Ning, a college student who meets her friend's on-again off-again ex-boyfriend and starts a relationship with him.