At first moving to Phnom Penh seems like a good idea. Things seem normal in the city, and Mak has two more children, both healthy boys. Pa studies medicine, to better care for his children. Though Athy does hear troubling reports about the war going on in the outlying provinces, she is still a child, with a child’s belief in her parents’ ability to protect her.

Within a few short years, however, the war creeps closer to the city. Schools close and people limit their activities, scared of the many terrorist attacks that take place. Athy compares how different factions fight over Cambodia to a child’s game, noting that amid “all this, Cambodia has become the coveted tin can” (51). As the situation in the city worsens, Athy’s parents try to prepare her for the worst. They tell her, “There comes a time when a grain of rice sticks on a dog’s tail, and everyone will fight for it” (51). In other words, though a person might not imagine having to eat food that has been contaminated by an animal, when things are really bad, people will become desperate.

Athy doesn’t quite understand what her parents mean, though she does recognize that things have changed.