Young Joy, who has been experiencing the stifling control of the Chinese government over the lofty ambitions of university students like herself to study abroad, has just realized that the forces amassed against her won't budge a millimeter despite her efforts to work within the system. So Joy initiates a complex series of daring scenarios to beat the legal system at its own game in order to secure her exit visa to the United States. And she does: transforming herself into the Tiger of Beijing. Calculated. Intuitive. Fierce.

But before her plane lands in the Land of Opportunity, Joy finds herself faced with another problem that proves to be much more challenging than leaving a Communist country. Psychologically pushed to the brink of ruin in every way imaginable, Joy once again calls forth the Tiger of Beijing from deep within herself.

Set against the austere backdrop of the post-Tiananmen Square Incident in Beijing, China, Tiger of Beijing dramatically relays Joy's five-year hero's journey that takes her across the Atlantic and into the heart of San Francisco where she finally experiences the freedom of the human spirit for which she had longed as a young girl.