Watching TV with the Red Chinese

Three Chinese students, Tzu (James Chen), Wa (Keong Sim) and Chen (Leonardo Nam) come to study in America in the summer of 1980. They move into a New York City apartment next door to Dexter (Ryan O'Nan), a graduate student who introduces them to Suzanne (Gillian Jacobs), his occasional girlfriend and to Billy (Michael Esper), a struggling filmmaker. The Chinese find America fascinating. However, their perceptions, based on watching non-stop television, change when one of them is brutally mugged, when Suzanne takes up with Chen behind Dexter's back, and when Zap (Peter Scanavino), Suzanne’s ex boyfriend, stalks them into a state of terror. When on December 8, 1980 John Lennon is murdered, the Chinese students decide to buy a gun for self-defense.