Dancing with Mao and Miguel is the riveting story of love set against the backdrop of radical politics in the 1970s. A young woman strives to discover her own path in the face of personal and political obstacles.
When Jenny Apple meets Miguel, a fellow worker from the Dominican Republic, in a New Jersey factory, she is captivated by his revolutionary past but terrified by her attraction to him. Although she herself is involved in revolutionary work, she is consumed with doubts about the efficacy of fundamental social change in the U.S. She feels detached from her comrades and has grown weary of organizing in factories. As Jenny is drawn ever closer to Miguel, she attempts to surmount these misgivings as well as conquer her longtime fears of intimacy. Just when she may be making progress, she's thrust into a series of betrayals that threaten to devastate her.