Hang, the narrator, is recovering from a multi-day fever when she receives a telegram from her Uncle Chinh in Moscow. He is ill and demands that Hang come to Moscow immediately. Hang initially refuses to go. Her roommate plays a record, and the music takes Hang’s thoughts to her childhood. The narrative briefly flashes back to Hang’s childhood neighborhood in Hanoi, a poor and filthy place that reeked of urine. When Hang’s thoughts return to the present, she feels she has no option but to obey her uncle and go to Moscow.

Once on the train to Moscow, Hang closes her eyes, and the narrative shifts to her family’s background. Hang’s grandparents died young, leaving Hang’s mother and Uncle Chinh parentless. Uncle Chinh, 18 years old at the time, leaves home and heads north, where he eventually joins the Liberation Army. Hang’s mother, Que, stays in the village and works as a street vendor, using her earnings to maintain the family home and ancestral graves. The narrative follows another flashback to Hang’s childhood as she reflects on the time she visited that home. Hang grew up fatherless, and she doesn’t know the name of her father until she hears women teasing her mother about “handsome Ton.