White Hibiscus is a poetic memoir that circles around an archived memory unlocked by a woman during the captivity of a cruise ship journey. While her husband prepares for his piano recitals, she encounters portholes into her childhood, reliving memories of the Philippines with vivid clarity, and, at times, pain. For all its luxury, she can't help being affected by what she observes on the ship, the passengers' wealth, the crew's subservience. Always prone to motion sickness, onboard her nausea is constant. White Hibiscus is a meditation on how trauma casts stones into the strange waters of our lives, creating ripples that stretch on long after the stones have sunk.