Set in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, SMOKING TIGERS follows Hayoung, played by Ji-young Yoo (EXPATS), a lonely 16-year-old Korean American girl who is taken under the wings of three wealthy students she meets at an elite academic boot-camp. As she falls deeper into their world, Hayoung works harder to hide her problematic family and lower-income background from her new friends, only to discover the bittersweet pains of adulthood that will shape her life.