Peter Huang and Aiko Tanaka look like the perfect Asian couple together but their different origins (Chinese and Japanese) have always forced them to choose sides. Troubled by historical events that happened between China and Japan, their marriage suffers as a result. Then one day Aiko and their son Kung Tai are killed in a tragic car accident in Vancouver, Peter becomes heartbroken and guilt-ridden as he feels that the spirits of his deceased family have come back to haunt him because perhaps he has not done the right thing for them. He approaches a First Nations group for help and an elder suggests a proper way to ‘send away’ Peter’s family. An aboriginal ritual that incorporates the ancient native legend of the Thunderbird and the Killer Whale is performed at Vancouver’s Coal Harbor. Soon afterwards, Peter receives a message in his dream in which his son tells Peter that a killer whale or orca has carried him home to Asia. Inspired by the First Nations customs, Peter begins to realize that reconciliation and forgiveness are the key to resolve the differences between different groups and attain a peaceful co-existence. Then one day, someone brings in a ceremonial kimono to him as a gift to the cultural center where he works, he envisions how his own version of the Puccini opera ‘Madama Butterfly’ can be used as a way to pay tribute to the multicultural society that is Vancouver in which he lives and honor all victims of war, including people like himself and his wife who have suffered through the persistence memory of war and the historic conflicts.