Hong Yi is a teenager in China who believes she is destined for greatness, but her Asian culture frowns upon females doing anything other than being seen and not heard. When an odd birthmark below Hong's rib cage begins to agitate her, her father reveals a secret that will give her the opportunity to test her greatness: Hong is a guardian of a legend so frightening that if the world ever found out, a terrible panic would spread like a tidal wave around the globe. Almost thirteen years old, Douglas McClowski III lives in North Carolina and is a normal kid with some fairly normal friends. But when Nian's Chinese Buffet opens in town, things begin to change. There's something curious lurking inside the restaurant besides the aroma of chop suey. Oddly, everyone's luck starts to change. Doug soon realizes that something is evil about the Chinese buffet, and he and his new friend Hong unite forces to meet a foe much greater and more sinister than anything they could ever have imagined. But will they defeat it before it unleashes its evil on the world?