Thirty-five years ago, Zed’s fate was decided not by love, but by survival under China’s One Child Policy, when her mother was forced to give her up after doctors deemed her “stupid” and brain-damaged—a devastating judgment in a society where a child was a family’s sole hope for the future. In My Mother Was a Thief, this raw personal history collides with myth, as Zed’s mother, Xue, transforms into Snow the Stormblade, a Kung Fu warrior reclaiming her daughter in a genre-bending graphic memoir that blends reality with the heightened drama of martial arts cinema. Their journey spans decades and continents, marked by separation, sacrifice, and an unbreakable bond, culminating in an unexpected reunion during the pandemic when Zed—now a physician—must protect her mother not only from the virus but from the rising tide of anti-Asian hate.