This story follows an unnamed undercover international spy who departs Saigon, Vietnam in 1975 to live in Los Angeles as an agent to the Communists. He tells us about himself, that he is half Vietnamese and half French, and that his father was a Catholic priest who broke his vow of celibacy to impregnate his mother. Although he reports to the Communists in Vietnam, he is friendly with the CIA and with other Vietnamese people who are not Communists.
We meet General Bon, a friend of the spy whom the spy supports in his work. Bon's family was killed in a military attack, spurring him to move to America where he opens a liquor store. He bemoans American culture and its humiliating effects on him. Meanwhile, the spy exchanges intel about a possible uprising on American soil. The spy receives an offer from a Hollywood studio to consult on a film about the Vietnam War, but when he arrives to work, he realizes that the studio is blatantly mischaracterizing the truth about the Vietnam War to demonize the Vietnamese. He is almost killed by an "accidental" explosion after his work with the film is complete.
After the event, he disobeys his intelligence advisor and returns to Vietnam, but before he departs, he decides to conduct some unofficial business. He murders a Vietnamese newspaper editor named Sonny on a personal vendetta—Sonny had been sleeping with Ms. Mori, the spy's own girlfriend. He departs and ends up in Vietnam, and here the story becomes contradictory to earlier passages of the novel. He is captured trying to help General Bon in a military attack, but the spy is captured and he writes this novel about his experience as he reflects on the truth about the conflict between France and Vietnam, and between the USA and Vietnam. After his release, we learn he is among the Vietnamese Boat People, a refugee.
