Rachel and Nick are in their favorite New York tea house when Nick invites Rachel to join him in Singapore this summer for his best friend’s wedding. Rachel is excited to meet Nick’s family, and she also wonders if this means he’s thinking about marriage. Unbeknownst to Nick and Rachel, a girl in the cafe recognizes Nick and overhears this conversation. She texts her sister and before long, nearly all of upper-class Singapore knows that Nicholas Young, Singapore’s most eligible bachelor, is bringing a girl home. Though Nick’s cousin, Astrid, encourages Nick to prepare Rachel for the trip, Nick believes Rachel will fit in perfectly and that his family will love her.
However, when Nick’s mother Eleanor finds out Nick is bringing his longtime girlfriend whom she didn’t know existed to the wedding, she’s angry and concerned. It’s comforting when Nick’s second cousin Cassandra, a gossip who’s aptly nicknamed Radio One Asia, informs Eleanor that Rachel is part of the new-money Taipei Plastics Chu family. But the private investigator Eleanor hires reveals this is false: Rachel is from Mainland China and her mom, Kerry, is divorced, so Rachel is a “peasant.” So, with the help of her girlfriends Nadine, Daisy, Carol, and Lorena, Eleanor decides to go to Shenzhen for the first few days Rachel is in Singapore. Lorena has a contact there with more info on Rachel, and this way the women can shop and snub Rachel.
Rachel is surprised and delighted when she and Nick fly first class to Singapore. Nick’s best friend, Colin, and his fiancée Araminta meet them at the airport and take them out for dinner at a hawker center. The next day, Rachel visits her college friend Peik Lin Goh at Peik Lin’s parents’ mansion, and Rachel reveals that she’s going to Colin Khoo and Araminta Lee’s wedding. Peik Lin’s family is shocked: theirs is the wedding of the season. This raises questions about who Nick is, questions that become even more pressing when Nick asks Peik Lin to drop Rachel off at Ah Ma’s house for Friday night family dinner later. The house, Tyersall Park, isn’t a house: it’s a mansion nestled on dozens of acres, and it must be worth a fortune. Peik Lin observes that Nick’s family are “richer than God.” The dinner is fun, if overwhelming. Rachel meets Ah Ma (who invites Nick to come stay at Tyersall Park with Rachel instead of the hotel where they’re currently staying) and spends time with another cousin, Oliver. Oliver warns Rachel that there are forces conspiring against her—namely, Eleanor and every young, single woman in Asia who’d like to marry Nick themselves. Though Rachel is concerned, after this, that she’ll never fit into Nick’s ultrawealthy circle, he insists she’s doing great and that everyone loves her.
The next day, in Shenzhen, Eleanor learns damning information about Rachel and begins to conspire with two of Nick’s former love interests, Nadine’s daughter Francesca and Mandy Ling, to run Rachel off. Rachel, meanwhile, attends Araminta’s bachelorette weekend at an island resort that Araminta’s mom, Annabel Lee, owns. There, almost all the girls treat her terribly, and someone puts a mutilated fish in her bag and writes a threatening message in fish blood on her mirror. At the same time, Colin and his groomsmen are at a bachelor weekend that Bernard Tai planned—and Colin, Nick, and their closest friends aren’t enjoying the sex workers, gambling, and dog fights. Nick finally whisks Colin away to Australia for a relaxing weekend.
Not wanting to worry Nick, Rachel doesn’t mention the abuse she suffered at the bachelorette weekend. She accompanies Nick to his parents’ apartment, expecting an intimate family dinner—but Eleanor has invited all her friends, Francesca, and Astrid. Over dinner, Francesca implies that she put the fish in Rachel’s bag. The following night, Rachel and Nick attend a party that Harry Leong, Astrid’s father, is throwing for Colin. Eleanor expects her family to be horrendous to Rachel—but when Nick’s cousin Alistair shows up with his girlfriend Kitty Pong, a soap opera star with fake breasts and a dress that exposes her nipples, and announces they’re engaged, Nick’s aunts hastily engage Rachel in conversation. The next day, Peik Lin takes Rachel shopping for appropriate clothes to wear to the wedding tomorrow.
Rachel sits with Oliver and the rest of the Young clan at the wedding—and to many onlookers’ surprise, the family allows Kitty to sit with them, too. Astrid and Ah Ma shock people when they arrive together, as Ah Ma doesn’t go to people’s events. Astrid convinced her grandmother to come to try to deflect attention away from herself: her husband, Michael, is having an affair and wants a divorce, so he’s not here. Ashamed, Astrid doesn’t want to answer any questions. During the wedding, Nick realizes he wants to marry Rachel. He whisks Rachel away during the reception to show her one of his favorite childhood haunts, but Mandy and her boyfriend show up to join them. There, Mandy reveals that she and Nick shared their first kiss here.
That night, Fiona, who’s married to Nick’s tyrannical cousin Eddie, insists that Rachel borrow a sapphire necklace to spite Eddie. Eleanor is enraged when she sees Rachel wearing the necklace at the wedding dinner, as she knows the necklace came from Ah Ma—and Aunt Victoria lies to Eleanor that Ah Ma gave Rachel the necklace directly. Near the end of the evening, Francesca reveals to Rachel that she, Mandy, and Nick had a threesome as teenagers. Once the party is over and Nick and Rachel return to Tyersall Park, Rachel breaks down and tells Nick about the abuse she’s been suffering. Nick feels terrible and suggests they go away tomorrow.
Early the next morning, Nick goes to his parents’ flat and tells Eleanor he’s going to ask Rachel to marry him. She’s upset and insists Rachel is too poor, but Nick doesn’t listen. He and Rachel spend the day driving and enjoying tourist attractions along the way to Ah Ma’s summer lodge in Malaysia, where Nick plans to propose at sunset. But when they get there, Eleanor and Ah Ma are there—and Eleanor presents Rachel with the information her private investigator turned up. Rachel’s father, Zhou Fang Min, is alive, not dead like Rachel thought; and he’s in prison for causing a deadly construction accident. Kerry kidnapped Rachel and took her to the U.S. as a baby. Thus, Eleanor and Ah Ma conclude, Nick can’t marry Rachel. Rachel faints.
After breaking up with Nick and refusing to see him, Rachel spends the next week languishing in the Gohs’ guest room. She calls Kerry and screams at her mom for lying to her about her father, and she and Peik Lin make plans to visit him in a Chinese prison. But just as Rachel and Peik Lin are preparing to leave, Nick drives up with Kerry. Kerry insists she and Rachel must talk; Rachel cannot go to China.
In the library, Kerry tells Rachel how she and Fang Min married when Kerry was still a teenager living in rural China. Kerry thought she was escaping her provincial village life, but Fang Min’s mother was cruel to her, and Fang Min soon began to abuse her. However, Kerry fell in love with a young man, Kao Wei, who protected her from Fang Min’s drunken rages—and Kao Wei is Rachel’s real father. When Rachel was born, Fang Min’s mother planned to blind her so that Kerry could legally have another child (hopefully a son), and Kao Wei helped Kerry and Rachel escape the Zhous so they could in turn leave China for the U.S.
Now that Kerry and Rachel have made up, they decide to go out for drinks with Peik Lin and Nick. At one of Singapore’s most touristy rooftop bars, Rachel thanks Nick for bringing her mom here, and they share a kiss.
