The story begins after the House of Wong restaurant moves from Chinatown to the posh upper east side of Manhattan. While the family lives upstairs, the restaurant undergoes renovation. They find drug dealing in the adjacent alley and passing vandals throw stones at their window. Adding to the tension, the restaurant receives a “stop work order. The family is used to the clannish, insular ways of Chinatown. Their only advisor uptown is Mr. Lee, long-time owner of the exclusive boutique Lee Kee Boots.Fourteen-year-old Wendy, the heroine, and her nine-year-old brother, Winston, secretly wish for the integration of the family into their new community. Wendy is caught between her new “wish” and her strong ties to her traditional family. Soon, Wendy’s flute playing leads her to make a new friend and ally in Mrs. Horton, who owns the bookstore next door. Mrs. Horton brings the retired judge Bernstein and the Israeli Ambassador Ben Zvi to start a legal defense fund to assist the Wongs. The family agrees to hire neighborhood help and redesign the restaurant to meet the community board’s demands.David DiVario, a senior from Wendy’s high school, is hired as a delivery and busboy. Wendy and David start a budding romance, and they learn that Ambassador Ben Zvi is a holocaust survivor. Wendy practices flute in her bedroom and is able simultaneously to hear voices from the alley under her window. The family devices a plan to have Mr. Lee call the police whenever Wendy hears drug dealing in the alley. The family is not successful in catching drug dealers. However, Wendy overhears a plot to poison the Israeli Ambassador. The Wongs proceed to take precautions in the restaurant, but refuse to involve the police or their neighbors because they do not want to offend anyone, and they only trust “people of their own kind.” Wendy is instructed to tail David whenever he makes deliveries to the Ben Zvis.At the climax of the story, David and Wendy are kidnapped by the would-be assassins, bound and gagged, and dumped in a desolate warehouse in the Bronx. However, their ingenious maneuvers and mutual cooperation help them escape. After they are freed, they find out that the family’s (chiefly Wendy’s) intriguing plan has indeed saved the Ambassador’s life.
