Bill and Jill were going to visit Da-wei and Li-hua Wu in Taiwan for several days. Before they left America, Bill and Jill tried to learn about Chinese food and Taiwanese ways of doing things. They wanted to be polite. They learned that most people in Taiwan eat rice, drink tea, and take off their shoes when they go into a friend's apartment. Bill and Jill even learned to use chopsticks.

At the same time, Da-wei and Li-hua learned about American food and American ways of doing things. They wanted to be friendly. When Bill and Jill came to the Wu's house, Da-wei and Li-hua told them to keep their shoes on. Later they went out for dinner. They ate pizza and drank Coke. The next few days, they had breakfast in a coffee shop and ate hamburgers in a fast-food restaurant.

On their way back to America, Bill and Jill were thinking about why they never ate rice or drank tea or ate with chopsticks. They never took off their shoes when they visited the Wu family. They thought that living in Taiwan was just like living in America.