Twelve-year-old Astrid Xu stumbles upon an ancient Chinese scroll that she hopes is the key to curing her mother's depression, but when it transports her and her younger sister Marilla to a realm where Chinese legends are real, they suddenly find themselves caught in a war between good and evil.

After his augmented reality gaming headset is possessed by the spirit of the First Emperor of China, twelve-year-old Chinese American Zack Ying is compelled to travel across China to steal an ancient artifact, fight figures from Chinese history and myth, and seal a portal to prevent malicious spirits from destroying the human realm.