The primary characters are known only as the Young Girl and the Chinese Man. The daughter of bitter, fearful, poverty-stricken colonials, the girl is a pretty waif who wears an old linen dress and a fedora, and paints her lips bright red when out of her mother's sight. She and her family are French, but live in Vietnam where her mother is a schoolteacher to local children. Her weak-willed mother, violent older brother, and timid younger brother live in a rural section across the river. The girl is a loner but an excellent student, who dreams of being a writer.