Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Ilo Ilo chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family - troublesome grade-schooler Jialer and his overstressed parents, Teck and Leng. Comfortably middle-class and with another baby on the way, they hire Terry, a Filipino immigrant, as a live-in maid and nanny. An outsider in both the family and Singapore itself, Terry initially struggles to manage Jialer's antics and find her footing in her new community. The two eventually form a unique bond, but just as Terry becomes an unspoken part of the family, unforeseen circumstances in an uncertain economy will challenge the new normal yet again.
