Lily Wong is an animal activist whose main goal in life is to save reptiles from being turned into purses. Scarred by a broken engagement, she is resolutely single at thirty-five, which doesn't sit well with her overbearing Chinese parents. The pressure to find a partner intensifies after her brother brings home a new girlfriend just before the Lunar New Year. So when Charles Chen-dashing heir to a multi-million dollar shark fin empire-asks to fake-date her while she's protesting at the mall, she agrees on the condition that he fake-date her in return, to get her parents off her back for the holiday.
Charles is faking a relationship with Lily to solve his own problem: his parents can't stand his spoiled, social media-famous girlfriend, Margaux. After a bad fight with Margaux leaves him alone for the Lunar New Year, Charles convinces Lily to pose as his girlfriend. Charles hopes that by bringing the obstinately plain, shark fin-hating Lily home as a contrast, his parents will appreciate Margaux and accept her, helping him win Margaux back.
Charles's plan backfires when his parents unexpectedly take a liking to Lily. The more they try to remedy the situation, the deeper their lie gets-and the more their real feelings for each other grow. As their families threaten to unravel their increasingly-less-fake relationship, Lily has to confront her fear of getting hurt again, and Charles has to decide between his family and his feelings. When Margaux reappears to reclaim her wealthy boyfriend, Lily and Charles are forced to make a decision between going back to the lives they knew before, or following their hearts into the new and unknown.