Evelyn Wang is a first generation Chinese-American woman who runs a struggling laundromat with her husband, Waymond. Tensions are high due to the laundromat being audited by the IRS. Additionally, Waymond is trying to give Evelyn divorce papers, Evelyn's demanding father, Gong Gong,[a] has just arrived from China, and Evelyn's daughter, Joy, has been trying to get her mother to accept her girlfriend, Becky. While at the IRS building for a meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra, Waymond's personality changes when his body is briefly taken over by Alpha Waymond, a version of Waymond from the Alpha Universe or "Alphaverse". Alpha Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist, since every choice made creates a new universe. The people of the Alphaverse, led by the late Alpha Evelyn, developed "verse-jumping" technology that allows people to access the skills, memories, and body of their parallel universe counterparts by fulfilling specific conditions. The multiverse is being threatened by Jobu Tupaki, formerly Alpha Joy. Her mind was splintered after Alpha Evelyn pushed her to extensively verse-jump; Jobu Tupaki now experiences all universes at once and can verse-jump and manipulate matter at will. With her godlike power she has created a black hole-like "everything bagel"[b] that can potentially destroy the multiverse.