The Happiest Refugee begins with a brief prologue, as narrator Anh Do speeds down the Hume Highway in Australia, crying. He is going to see his father for the first time in nine years, and wonders if the man will even recognize him. He has many bad memories of his father, a drunk whose memory fills him with fear. His thoughts are angry, even violent as he reviews his long resentment of his father for abandoning the family, for failing to provide for his wife and children. Despite this, he admits he misses him. He was funny and charming, and tried to give his son good advice despite his own failings. Anh arrives in a run-down area and knocks on the door of the address he’s been given. A young woman, not much older than the 22-year-old narrator and carrying a baby, answers, and calls to his father. Anh’s father greets him enthusiastically. Anh is shocked to see that his father looks almost the same. As his father greets him in his standard gregarious style, slapping him playfully and commenting on his looks, Anh notices that his father is slurring his words.