Vikram (Ashotosh Gowariker) is an Indian immigrant from Bombay who lands in San Francisco. His happiness over his arrival in the United States is diminished when customs officers unexplainably trim his tourist visa from six months to one. When he arrives at the home of his sponsor, he finds that the building is abandoned, and his application to study at the University of California has been rejected. He later meets Sue (Heidi Carpenter), a punk-rock femme who works at a late-night theater specializing in horror films, and Vikram becomes very fond of the woman, proposing marriage in hopes of starting a new life in the United States.

The Mystery of George Masa details the life of Masaharu Iizuka, (AKA George Masa) a Japanese immigrant who came to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina in 1915, where he focused his camera and his passions on preserving the beauty of the wilderness he discovered. Eighteen years after his arrival, his death left behind thousands of photographs and an impressive legacy that included a role in the founding of two great national treasures, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian Trail. However, throughout his life in America he was secretive about his past, with no one knowing the details of his life experience and his inner passions.