| Author's Note | p. xiii | |
| Prologue: Ancestors | p. 1 | |
| Leaving Home | p. 5 | |
| Father | p. 14 | |
| Phan Thiet | p. 19 | |
| Mother | p. 28 | |
| Dalat Days | p. 32 | |
| The Mid-Autumn Festival | p. 41 | |
| Sea Grubs | p. 49 | |
| Saigon Night | p. 51 | |
| Cricket Fight | p. 57 | |
| The Recruiter | p. 64 | |
| Hoi and I | p. 71 | |
| The Draft | p. 80 | |
| The Orphan | p. 91 | |
| Famine | p. 97 | |
| The Famine Soup | p. 99 | |
| The Flood | p. 105 | |
| The Ambush | p. 107 | |
| The Last Magistrate | p. 120 | |
| The Democratic Republic of Vietnam | p. 124 | |
| The Trap | p. 129 | |
| The Algerian | p. 144 | |
| The Resistance Fighter | p. 154 | |
| The Tet Offensive | p. 164 | |
| The Executioner | p. 172 | |
| Old Friends | p. 184 | |
| The Champagne Bottle | p. 200 | |
| The Slave | p. 210 | |
| A Lull of Silence | p. 213 | |
| Crossing the French Line | p. 220 | |
| The Fall of Saigon | p. 226 | |
| The Widower | p. 241 | |
| The Capture | p. 251 | |
| The Peasant Girl | p. 267 | |
| Reeducation | p. 276 | |
| Farewell, Hanoi | p. 284 | |
| The Release | p. 294 | |
| Bibliography | p. 299 | |
| Acknowledgments | p. 301 |