James Carver visits Vietnam, a country he never expected or wanted to travel to again, with his wife, Michiko, his daughter, Claire, and Claire’s boyfriend, Khoi Legaspi. Carver refused to join the trip initially until they compromised on visiting Angor Wat first. Carver does not like Khoi; he finds him patronizing and is irked at what he perceives as a mismatch between his Asian first name and European last name, which he received from his adoptive parents. He is cynical about Khoi’s occupation as a robotics researcher and warns him about taking money from the military-industrial complex.

Carver is 68 and beginning to feel the effects of old age on his mind; he feels less intelligent than he once was. He traces the beginning of this decline to his son William’s graduation from the Airforce Academy—the proudest moment of Carver’s life. William finds his support position as a refueler boring, but Carver, who flew B-52s in the Vietnam War, is glad his son has a safe job. Multiple pilots in Carver’s squadron were shot down; he and the other survivor spent four years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Despite his experience as a prisoner of war, Carver loved flying his B-52 and fondly remembers the feeling of freedom it gave him.