Les Blank's handheld camera takes us into the hidden world of tea by following world-renowned tea expert David Lee Hoffman to some of the most remote regions of China in search of the best handmade teas in the world.

Hoffman is a step ahead of his own country in that he is advocating “fair trade” and organics. Despite Hoffman’s at times argumentative and condescending manner, we become increasingly empathetic to him; he is only one small voice against a vast and complex machine.

The film moves from a modern, urban setting to a pastoral China rarely glimpsed by westerners.. Scenes shot in cinema verité are interwoven with more formal presentations about the fundamentals of tea with tea authorities James Norwood Pratt, Gaetano Kazuo Maida, and Winnie W. Yu.