Summary

In the panhandle of Texas, a girl named Hằng travels by bus toward Amarillo. At the same time, a boy named LeeRoy Cooper drives toward Amarillo from Austin in order to attend a rodeo show being put on by his idol, Bruce Ford. Hằng eagerly awaits her arrival in Amarillo because she knows her younger brother, from whom she has long been separated, is waiting for her there. LeeRoy, meanwhile, listens to rap music on his way north and stops to eat some brownies.

Hằng contemplates the emptiness of Texas and thinks back to her life in Việt Nam, prior to the war, when her younger brother, Linh, dreamed of being a cowboy. She recalls Linh being taken forcefully from her by American soldiers during a “rescue” mission called Operation Babylift, during which they removed Vietnamese...