June Hayward, an unsuccessful young author, finds herself the only witness to the death of her former classmate, Athena Liu, a Chinese-American author who is an industry darling. She decides to position herself as a friend of the author and begins to edit and re-write Athena's manuscript, a novel about Chinese laborers in World War I. As she changes more and more of the draft, June begins to feel ownership over the novel and decides to publish it as her original work. June submits the manuscript and is immediately welcomed by publishers and offered a large advance.