Set in WWII-era Philippines, Kanin follows Encar, a young Filipina school teacher, as she sits down to dinner with her family, only to find there’s no rice on her plate. Her brother, a soldier home from the front, insists she doesn’t deserve it. What unfolds is a tightly wound, four-minute showdown over pride, power, and survival. All sparked by a simple question: Where is the rice?

Jay's traumatic memory of his grandfather's death haunts him on the biggest stage of his life: the national spelling bee competition.