Kien remembers coming home to see Sinh, a former soldier who had been paralyzed and then was sent home to die. A year earlier, before the paralysis was complete, Kien visited Sinh, but now Sinh lies on his bed, waiting to die. Kien had been happy to return to Hanoi after the war. He rode on the Trans-Vietnam “Unification” troop train after the fall of Saigon, saying it was one of his happiest memories as a soldier. He met a woman named Hien, whom he slept with in a hammock on the train while the other soldiers laughed. 

When he gets home to Hanoi, he sees Phuong in the hallway outside his room, but after a short joyful embrace, Kien sees she is living with another man and they fight bitterly. As winter sets in and he still misses Phuong, one night he believes he sees dead soldiers in the room. He sees the Jungle of Screaming Souls all around him. To fight the fear and pain, he begins to write about the war. He remembers all the soldiers he served with. He writes their deaths, reviving them one by one just to see them fall again on the page, but the next morning he feels a melancholy peace as he walks about Hanoi.