Daphne Reynolds lives a comfortable but unsatisfying life as a young American girl with a bright future. She has never met her father. She lives with her single mother, Libby, above a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, New York City. Believing it to be in his best interest, her mother had left Daphne's father seventeen years earlier because of his family's disapproval of their relationship; ultimately, his father's manager threw her out of the house, without Libby having a chance to tell him that she was pregnant with their daughter.