Margaret, a landscape designer, moves from New York to Hong Kong with her husband Clark and their three children, seeking relief from loneliness and unemployment. In the same house as Margaret live her school friend Hillary and her husband David—the couple is also going through a crisis due to their unsuccessful attempts to conceive a child. One day, bored Margaret meets Mercy, a homeless Korean woman who has fled to Hong Kong from a despotic mother, and offers her a job as a nanny. This seemingly noble decision ultimately leads Margaret's family to ruin.