7-year-old Swetha, the child of Indian immigrants, is harassed at school by classmate Bobby and his henchmen for using coconut oil in her hair. When Swetha's mother, Supriya, watches her daughter grow increasingly somber and withdrawn, she agrees to end the oiling to help her daughter assimilate. At the cost of her heritage, Swetha, finally free to be American, makes a friend only to learn that her and her classmates might not be as different as she thought.