Saving Face follows Wilhemina, a young Chinese-American surgeon as she deals with her unwed mother's pregnancy, and the obligations of her dancer girlfriend Vivian. Wil struggles with allocating time between her mother, who is shunned by the Chinese-American community for being pregnant and unwed and thus has come to live with Wil, and her girlfriend, Vivian, whom she presents to her mother as only a friend. At the same time, Wil's mother must decide whether the demands of her father's reputations, or the demands of her own heart, are more important.