A girl longs to return to the island in China where she was born to look for dragons. One day, her dream comes true when her family returns to celebrate Chinese New Year. The girl helps her grandparents prepare for the holiday. She assists her grandmother in making tangyuan, a tasty desert, and she watches as her grandfather paints a dragon costume. The girl joins in on the big holiday parade, then waits for nightfall when her family’s lotus-shaped lanterns can be released into the water. Her grandfather explains how the fish jump over the lanterns to become dragons, and why she is called Little Dragon Girl.