Based on the novel by Armistead Maupin and using characters from the famed anime by Rumiko Takehashi, TALES OF THE CITY 1/2 is about a group of young queer Asian Americans living in post-Stonewall San Francisco.

After discovering that his former boyfriend RANMA SAOTOME has married a woman he does not love, eighteen-year-old RYOGA HIBIKI escapes to San Francisco where he befriends openly gay Korean-Japanese journalist RYAN HITOMI. Hitomi's group of eclectic queers includes flamboyant Filipino MARTIN VENTURA, the realist bear BARRY FERGUSON, San Francisco State University professor and self-acclaimed Asian male afficionado TYLER STONEBROOK, club queen DEVIN LANCASTER and the bold and brash machismo KERRY KWOK.

Meanwhile Ranma's heartbroken former fiance SHAMPOO CHEN also escapes her failures in Tokyo by becoming a successful student at the University of California, Berkeley. She exchanges her tormented past for a new life at Berkeley's conservative Christian sorority Kappa Alpha Omicron and a future with her boyfriend BENJAMIN PHAM. But when a breathtakingly gorgeous lesbian student activist JANE DUNWAY makes a pass at her, Shampoo is left amidst confusion and acceptance of her affection for women.

As for RANMA SAOTOME, his relationship with his wife AKANE TENDO is on the rocks when her former girlfriend and his former fiance UKYO KUONJI returns to Tokyo.