Kien is the main character of the novel. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, he is haunted by the fighting. To cope with his memories, he writes a novel, returning again and again to the places where his friends died, to a time before Phuong, his teenage sweetheart, left him, and to the aftermath of the war. When the novel opens, Kien is part of a team recovering bodies from the Vietnamese jungles a year after the war, returning to his past. 

He never gets clear of the memories. Later, the reader learns that Kien is forty, and the war has been over for fourteen years. The reader also learns Kien is writing a novel about his experiences during the war. He calls the novel his sacred duty. He wants to tell his story of the war, but in reality, he is telling the story of all of Vietnam, especially the north. He describes the sorrow of soldiers in the aftermath of war, and the sorrow of Vietnam. 

He describes his sorrow as well, beginning with his return to the jungle and the memories of war, through his last good memories with Phuong before the war began, and to his own drunkenness and sorrow years after the war.