Rejected by the parents of the girl he loves for being poor, Ma Mon Luk strikes out from China and boards a steamship headed for the Philippines in 1918. He vows to make a fortune and return for his beloved. Ma creates a chicken noodle soup he calls mami--"ma" for his name and "mi" for noodles--and peddles it as a street vendor. He eventually earns enough to open his own restaurant and wins the approval of the parents of his true love.