Marlene D. Morel is an emotionally troubled Chinese-American teenage girl growing up in Utopia-Zurich, Switzerland. To avoid her drunk, abusive father, who is the Swiss version of Oscar Wilde and her American mother, a has-been soap opera star, who has no interest in her chubby, slant-eyed daughter, Marlene spends most of her time hiding inside the warehouse, which houses the family business, Morel Theatrical Costumier.

Preferring life among mannequins, props and costumes, Marlene has created over the years, a life of make-believe, where her imagination runs rampant. Trouble is,...