Ba and the Girl flee Vietnam on a fishing boat with four strangers, accidentally leaving Ma behind on a beach.

A U.S. naval ship rescues Ba, the Girl, and the four uncles, and they are taken to a refugee camp in Singapore.

Mel welcomes Ba, the Girl, and the four uncles to his home, honoring his late father's wish to sponsor Vietnamese refugees.

Mrs. Russell grows close to Ba and the Girl, taking them to the mountains every Sunday while they adjust to America.

The Girl throws the glass butterfly disk and accidentally shatters the cabinet of horse figurines in Mel's office.

Mel asks Ba and the Girl to leave his home after the glass cabinet holding Mr. Russell's figurines is broken.

Ma crashes the family Cadillac into the gate of the red apartment on her first night in America.

The landlord drains the swimming pool and fills it with rocks and a palm tree after catching boys jumping from the balcony.

The Girl senses her dead brother walking behind her while carrying a bag of ice home from the store.

The family moves to Linda Vista after learning their building manager has murdered a woman.

Ba punches the walls of their home until his hands bleed after Ma calls out his gangster side during a fight.

The family is evicted from their Linda Vista home and Ba and the uncles break through a new fence to retrieve their possessions.

The Girl runs away from home barefoot one cold night at age sixteen and does not return.

Ba calls the Girl on the phone and tearfully asks for help in broken English, but she cannot ease his pain.

The adult Girl returns to Vietnam and swims straight out into the sea where her brother drowned years before.

The novel opens with the Girl and her father Ba fleeing war-torn Vietnam on a fishing boat with four strangers, accidentally leaving Ma behind on a beach. They are rescued by a U.S. naval ship, pass through a refugee camp, and arrive in America under the patronage of Mel Russell. After the Girl accidentally destroys objects in Mel's office, they are asked to leave and eventually settle in a red apartment where Ma joins them, only to face fresh upheaval when the landlord fills in the beloved swimming pool. The family moves repeatedly — driven out by a murderous building manager and finally evicted from their Linda Vista home — while Ba's trauma-fueled violence and drunkenness make the household increasingly unbearable. The Girl runs away at sixteen, eventually becoming a writer on the East Coast, while her father deteriorates and reaches out to her from across the country. The novel ends with the adult Girl returning to Vietnam and swimming straight out into the sea where her brother drowned, beginning a fragile reckoning with her family's grief.

The core journey of a Vietnamese refugee family finding and losing home in America.

Mel hires Ba and the four uncles to paint his properties white, a color the Vietnamese men associate with death.

The Girl's teacher introduces her to class as the only Vietnamese student by pointing to Vietnam on a globe.

The Girl begins sneaking into Mel's office after school to spend time with a glass butterfly and the horse figurines.

Ma reunites with Ba and the Girl in the red apartment after being separated from her family in Vietnam.

The Girl and a neighborhood boy have their first romantic encounter inside a cardboard box known as the Kissing Box.

Ma cuts her long hair short that summer, wanting to appear more like a modern woman in America.

Ma's Catholic parents disown her for marrying Ba, a Buddhist gangster from North Vietnam.

Ba starts a gardening business called Tom's Professional Gardening Service and enlists his English-speaking daughter as his secretary.

A photograph of Ma's parents arrives from Vietnam, causing Ma to cry because she feels she has abandoned them.

Ma hurls dishes and plates out the window to relieve her anguish during a violent fight with Ba.

Ma and the Girl carry the photograph of Ma's parents up to the attic to symbolically bring them into their home.

During their early years without Ma, the Girl and her father walk sleeplessly through the city together late at night.

Ba and his closest Vietnamese friend drink beer and share memories of their youth in Vietnam and the end of the war.

Ba retrieves the Girl from a shelter and apologizes to counselors for what his hands have done and failed to do.

Ba drives late at night to the Vietnamese restaurant to pick up Ma after her shift as a worker ends.

Behind the headline events lie the smaller, formative scenes that define the texture of the Girl's childhood and her family's immigrant experience. From Ba and the uncles being instructed to paint walls white to the Girl navigating school as the only Vietnamese student, these moments expose the quiet indignities of refugee life in America. The Girl's adolescence unfolds through encounters in the Kissing Box and a growing awareness of her parents' passionate but troubled relationship, while Ma asserts her independence by cutting her hair short and mourning her severed connection to Vietnam. Life in Linda Vista is defined by Ba's gardening business, Ma's guilt over her parents left behind, and the fights that drive the household toward chaos. The Girl eventually leaves home and her parents settle into a quieter but still wounded life in San Diego, where Ma works late shifts at a Vietnamese restaurant and Ba tends other people's lawns.

The quieter, formative moments shaping daily life as Vietnamese refugees in America.

Mr. Russell dies, and his grief-stricken wife persuades their son Mel to honor his wish of sponsoring Vietnamese refugees.

Ba reassures the four uncles that Mel is a good man who kept them all from being sent back to Vietnam.

Ba cries alone at night under the palm trees outside Mel's home, tormented by grief over his separated family.

Ma falls in love with Ba after seeing his face for the first time in a dark movie theater in Vietnam.

The Girl is born in an alley behind her grandparents' house while her father is away fighting in the war.

Ba sinks his bloodied hands into the family fish tank and drives away from home after a violent fight with Ma.

The Girl watches her father's violent outburst and declares she will grow up to be the gangster they are all looking for.

As the family's home is demolished after eviction, Ma realizes she has left her parents' photograph inside to be destroyed.

Without realizing it, Ba digs a trench around a palm tree in a client's garden, a reflex from his days as a soldier.

The Girl's brother's body is pulled from the South China Sea and the grandfather carries him into the family courtyard.

The young Girl throws a pretend star at her dead brother's body during his funeral, hoping it will make him move.

A soldier refuses to release Ba from the re-education camp so he can attend his own son's funeral.

Ba is released from the re-education camp after the war and walks to his in-laws' home, where Ma is astonished to see him.

Ba becomes fixated on a television image of a weeping woman in a green field that reminds him of Vietnam's rice paddies.

Ba drives the family to the beach at night, where small silver fish light up the dark shore with each crashing wave.

The novel's emotional core is assembled through a series of revelations and turning points that gradually explain the grief each character carries. Mr. Russell's death sets the family's immigration in motion, and Ba's nightly crying under the palm trees signals an anguish that will define his life in America. Ma's wartime love story and the Girl's birth in an alley during bombing raids establish the roots of the family's bond, while the brother's drowning — which Ba misses entirely while imprisoned in a re-education camp — casts a shadow over everything that follows. The Girl witnesses her father's violent outbursts firsthand and declares she too will become the gangster they are all looking for, before eventually running away from the house that feels on fire. Ba's unresolved trauma surfaces throughout his adult life in California, from unconsciously digging wartime trenches in clients' gardens to fixating on a grieving woman on television. The novel closes in a moment of fragile tenderness as the family gathers at a dark beach in San Diego and watches silver fish light the shore with each breaking wave.

The hidden discoveries and emotional shifts that reveal why the family carries the weight they do.