Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers opens in San Francisco. Vera Wong’s Chinese horoscope animal is a pig, but she sees herself as more of a rooster. Every morning, she rises from bed at exactly 4:30 a.m. and sends a text to her lawyer son, Tilly. She reminds him that it is 4:31 a.m., being invested in his life. Vera then takes a brisk walk around the neighborhood and returns home to open her tea shop.

Vera’s tea shop once had many customers—mostly older immigrants—and now her only regular is her friend Alex Chen. She keeps a ledger of special teas she has concocted for him over the years, each one different. Today, she makes yet another tea for him and his ailing wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Alex arrives, and they sit down for a pot of Tieguanyin as she asks about his family. Of his two sons, he brags about his filial son Fasai, who brings him groceries every week and has a successful business. Alex ends up being the only customer of the day. Vera knows that someday, she will have to close the shop for good.

The next morning, Vera rises at 4:30 a.