Early in the novel, Fleming reports that in extensive reading he did during his Viet Nam tour, he found a quote from the English Renaissance playwright Christopher Marlowe that T. S. Eliot used as an epigraph to a poem: "Thou art guilty of fornication. But that was in another country. And besides, the wench is dead."

The quote summarizes the primary plot line with which Butler entwines the tale of the release of Tuyen—the remembered relationship between David and Suong, and his compulsive search for her and her son.

The preparation for a hearing and then a court martial logically requires that Fleming search his memory for details of his activities in Saigon and in his pursuit of Tuyen. At times, Fleming analyzes his remembered actions in the format of a lawyer questioning a witness and interpreting the answers, in reverie mirroring the events of his...