Yesol Hong emigrated to the United States from South Korea when she was just 16 years old. Without knowledge of the language or the culture, she was determined to get an education and pursue a nursing career. It wasn’t easy, she says, to overcome the racism she faced and assimilate to American culture while keeping the spirit of her Korean heritage alive. But she achieved her goal. Now, at 38, she is raising four children while encouraging other Asian nurses to pursue higher education to transcend limitations and succeed.

In this intimate portrait of Korean nurses in Los Angeles, Sabiha Çimen...