Vada is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. When Vada's father hires Shelly, a makeup expert, and begins to fall in love, Vada is outraged and does everything in her power to split them up.
A young American boy visiting China helps his zoologist father rescue a panda cub from unscrupulous poachers while its reserve is threatened with closure from officious bureaucrats.