By 1983, Hao and Kim have moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The place suits Kim. Her health is better, and she has more access to Chinese herbalists. One morning, while Kim is reading The Straits Times aloud as usual, he stops her at an article about a “Canadian” who is actually American, waiting to be sentenced to death for an arms racket. It is clear that the article is referring to Skip. Hao tells Kim that a man from his past is in grave trouble. Kim tells Hao that since the man is from his past, it is better for Hao not to think about it.

However, Hao cannot help thinking of the past or the fact that it is the sacrifice of others that has brought him and Kim to their comfortable life in Malaysia, where they live in the servants’ quarters behind the house of a doctor from Marseilles. Kim is the family’s housekeeper, while Hao drives the doctor to work. With Minh having emigrated to America, it is likely he will soon open a passage for his aunt and uncle to emigrate there. Hao feels sorrow for those who betrayed others, most of all Trung, on whom he played a “trick.” Though he escaped Fest, Trung was caught by the Americans and put in a prison camp. Fortunately, he was released at the end of the war and is seen as a hero. Trung has a house in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, and is often interviewed by historians.

Eddie is in Manila when he receives a letter from Skip, in which Skip tells him that he is in Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur, arrested for running a minor arms racket. Skip believes he will be sentenced to death and wants Eddie to check on his family, whose location he provides. Skip, who shifted to Cebu City after burning the colonel’s files, has a common law wife called Cora Ng and three children. Skip finishes the letter by reminiscing about the colonel. Though the colonel is dead, his spirit lives on in Skip.

Jimmy, who has been hopping countries since the colonel’s death, is still convinced the colonel is alive. He goes to the Kuala Lumpur High Court the day Skip is to be sentenced, where he watches the judge declare Skip a scourge on society and sentence him to death by hanging. Later, Jimmy visits the prison to meet Skip. The meeting, which happens in the presence of the warden, Mr. Shaffee, is strange, with Jimmy threatening to harm Skip’s family unless he reveals the colonel’s location. Skip punches Jimmy in the stomach, then tells Jimmy to see a man called Ju-Shuan in Gerik for answers. Shaffee ends the conversation.

Jimmy stays in Kuala Lumpur till Skip is hanged, and then heads to Gerik to meet the man named Ju-Shuan. After a convoluted encounter, Ju-Shuan gives Jimmy the colonel’s address across the border in Thailand, and Jimmy rushes to the road, hitching a ride with a boy on a motorcycle. After the motorcycle topples, the boy gets hurt. He and Jimmy walk to the nearby village for help, where they end up at the house of a strange man called Dr. Mahathir, either a medical doctor or an entomologist. Dr. Mahathir sutures the boy’s wound and tells Jimmy the village is cursed. In exchange for money for his family, the boy has agreed to undergo an immolation ceremony the next day to clear the village of the curse.

The next day, the villagers show Jimmy the way into Thailand. By noon, Jimmy is at the address he received. However, Jimmy only finds someone else there, whom Jimmy recognizes as Anders Pitchfork. Pitchfork says the colonel is dead, and shows Jimmy a grave at the back of the house. Pitchfork, who has known the colonel since he was a volunteer during World War II, tends to the colonel’s grave. Jimmy walks back to Dr. Mahathir’s village. By the time he arrives, the immolation ceremony is about to start, a pyre is set up, and the villagers are all dressed in clean clothes. The boy stands apart from the throng.

Jimmy steps next to the boy, yelling, “I am the true compensator” (592), and tells Dr. Mahathir that Jimmy should be the real sacrifice because he genuinely desires to undergo the ceremony. Jimmy will ensure the money still goes to the boy. Dr. Mahathir tries to dissuade Jimmy, but ultimately gives in. Jimmy is stripped and laid out on a blanket next to the pyre and has shards from broken household idols dropped on him. Jimmy hands over for the pyre a piece of paper on which is written a poem he composed on Vietnam. Mahathir explains that the pyre is symbolic: The plan was never to place a person in it. Jimmy lies on the blanket as the empty pyre burns, watching the smoke rise, waiting for the gods to reveal themselves in its face.

Kathy, now married to Doctor Carlos Benventuo, is in Minneapolis, where she meets Ginger, an old acquaintance. Over coffee, Ginger asks Kathy why she hasn’t seen her at church. Kathy confesses that she has strayed from faith after her experiences in Vietnam. Ginger says the church can help even in the “dry places” and suggests Kathy come with her to church the next time. She hands Kathy a letter that was forwarded to her via Colin Rappaport. The letter, running into several pages, is from Skip. Skip writes to Kathy from prison, explaining how he ended up there. He’s chosen to wait to write to her close to his execution day so he doesn’t have to wonder if she’ll ever answer.

Skip tells Kathy that he believes he loved her, the only person for whom he felt this way. However, her intensity scared him, and he did not answer her letters, just as he did not answer his mother’s letters. Thus, he drove off both women. If he had the chance for a do-over with her, he wouldn’t run. Skip sounds mystical and contemplative in the letter, but even though Kathy’s heart hurts for Skip, she does not remember him that way. She remembers him instead as a young man who used lies and humor as a defense mechanism.

Kathy heads to a conference on Vietnam, where she is to give a talk about her experiences. She meets three young women from Vietnam, now living in America. The girls address the audience before Kathy. As they leave the stage, Kathy gets on, looking at the auditorium and practicing her speech. She has an epiphany of sorts as the people in the audience become real to her. These people have backstories: Someone may have cancer; another may have a broken heart. Many of them may be veterans who have their bodies and spirits irrevocably changed, their back turned on their true beliefs. Nevertheless, Kathy decides, “[A]ll will be saved. All will be saved. All will be saved” (619).