The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Committed. Grove Press, 2021.

The Committed follows the activities of a Vietnamese refugee known as The Sympathizer as he attempts to make his way in the city of Paris. The Sympathizer is a former spy, and has been working for years as a double agent, moving back and forth between his communist allies and his anti-communist allies. He arrives in Paris after escaping Vietnam with his blood brother and friend, Bon, who is extremely religious and an avowed anti-communist. Bon and The Sympathizer find themselves caught up in a criminal enterprise run by the Boss, an ambitious gangster intent on accumulating capital through the peddling of drugs and women, and spend much of their time with a crew of other gangsters, most notably Le Cao Boi and the Ronin. The Sympathizer lives with his wealthy aunt, who frequently plays host to a revolving door of western intellectuals, most notably BFD, a socialist politician, and the Maoist PhD, a communist psychologist.

The Boss quickly decides that The Sympathizer should turn BFD and the Maoist PhD into clients, and The Sympathizer obliges, providing them with a drug he calls the remedy. The Sympathizer is able to acquire their business because their previous drug dealer, a man named Saïd, has been missing in action for some time. The Sympathizer dutifully makes his drug deliveries until he is attacked by two men that he calls Beatles and Rolling Stones on account of the shirts they wear. Both of them are members of Saïd’s gang. He manages to escape, but is severely injured in the process.

The Sympathizer recovers in a brothel called Heaven, where he meets several characters, including a prostitute named Madeleine, a bouncer he calls the eschatological muscle, and the house’s expressionist mistress. The Sympathizer begins to recount past traumas while he is in recovery, including his participation in the rape of a young communist woman while he was working for the CIA. He is unable to participate in sexual activity with Madeleine, and is humiliated by having to watch the Ronin sleep with another prostitute. This awakens a seed of sexual doubt in The Sympathizer’s mind.

Bon discovers that an individual he calls the faceless man has arrived in Paris. The faceless man was a tormentor of Bon and The Sympathizer while they were held in a reeducation camp by the communists. Bon does not know that the faceless man is really a man named Man, a fellow double agent who is blood brothers with both Bon and The Sympathizer. The Sympathizer grows concerned about Bon’s desire to kill Man, and begins attempting to think of a way to avoid the inevitable confrontation. In the meantime, Bon begins to develop feelings for a woman named Loan, who he meets at the Vietnamese Union.

Eventually, The Sympathizer is captured by Beatles and a man named the Mona Lisa. He is taken to a warehouse and interrogated. Just as it seems he is about to be killed, he is rescued by his fellow gangsters. Thus ensues an effort to capture the one member of Saïd’s gang that manages to escape, the Mona Lisa. When they finally track the Mona Lisa down, they take him and hold him in a warehouse of their own.

The Sympathizer is tasked with convincing BFD to come to the brothel and become involved in the underground prostitution ring that takes place there. After he does this, The Sympathizer convinces BFD to come to an orgy, which the Boss secretly videotapes in order to blackmail BFD later in his career. Over the course of this assignment, The Sympathizer becomes increasingly appalled by his own masculinity and his participation in the exploitation of women, a revelation fueled by his aunt’s accusations that he is a misogynist. The Sympathizer begins attempting to make amends for his role in patriarchal oppression by providing Madeleine with oral sex and confronting BFD about his treatment of women.

It becomes clear that Man is going to appear at an upcoming performance of Fantasia. Bon plans to kill him there. The Sympathizer also learns that his old flame, Lana, is one of the performers.

The Sympathizer is also tasked with interrogating the Mona Lisa, but instead he chooses to calmly discuss the biographical details of the Mona Lisa’s life with him. After the orgy, the Boss insists that The Sympathizer kill the Mona Lisa, but he refuses to do so. The Boss is about to kill both of them when Saïd and Rolling Stones come to rescue the Mona Lisa and kill the Boss, Le Cao Boi, and the Ronin in the process. The Sympathizer’s life is spared on the Mona Lisa’s word and he proceeds to go to the Boss’s apartment, where he encounters the Boss’s secretary, an attractive woman he has been lecherous toward throughout the novel. The secretary confronts him about his misogyny and forces him to take a meager amount of the Boss’s money, half of which The Sympathizer gives to Madeleine.

The Sympathizer attends the performance of Fantasia and reunites with Lana. He discovers he has a daughter. During the show, Man gets up to use the bathroom and Bon insists that they must pursue him. Man is waiting for them in a bathroom. Bon and The Sympathizer take him to Delights of Asia, the restaurant that the Boss has been using as a front, and there The Sympathizer and Man reveal to Bon that they are double agents. Bon hesitates to kill them before killing himself.

The Sympathizer recovers in a hospital called Paradise, where he is encouraged to write down his experiences by his aunt, the handsome and humorless lawyer, and the Maoist PhD.