The memoir begins with Bui in hospital about to give birth, with her mother waiting for her in the hospital. Her mother tells her of her own birth experience, having to give birth alone as her father was out with his friends.
The memoir then skips to Bui’s decision to move to New York to study art and live with her boyfriend Travis, much to her mothers displeasure. She then goes about her family life and moves back closer to be with her parents. Here she begins to ask her mother about her experiences in Vietnam. Her mother tells the story of how she gave birth in a refugee camp in Malysia. She experiences a few stillborn deaths which made life difficult for her and kept her in a “gray” place for a while.
Bui’s mother than tells the story of how her college degrees were useless in the US and she ended up working a minimum wage job to support their family instead her husband becomes a stay at home dad, but he is not a very good parent to the children. He spends his days smoking and drinking and engaging in fantastical bouts, instead of properly caring for his family. Back in the present, Bo begins to share his own experiences. He describes how his father began an affair and kicked his mother out of their house, and how they barely survived due to lack of resources.
In the end, the scene moves back to the hospital where Bui has just given birth. She acknowledges how she is “no longer a kid” and questions whether she could “measure up to” her own parents. However, she comments that her son had the chance to experience a new life and “be free.”
