Three years later, Hương, Ngọc, Đạt, and Diệu Lan journey over 1000 kilometers (approximately 621 miles) south to Nha Trang after receiving a telegram from Minh. Hạnh meets them, and they proceed to Minh’s home, a paltry shack. A tearful reunion ensues, but Minh is deathly ill. Ngọc obtains his medical records and learns that he has cancer so advanced that the hospital sent him home to die. Ngọc instructs Hương to withhold this information from Diệu Lan.

As Ngọc prepares herbal remedies to ease his pain, Diệu Lan tells Minh about what has happened in the 24 years since they last met, including a few new items: Sáng’s slow climb up the party ladder, Đạt’s marriage to Nhung and their healthy three-year-old son Thống Nhất, Hương’s achievements in university, her poems that have been published in Hanoi newspapers, and her relationship with Tâm, which Diệu Lan now embraces. Hương notes in her narration some information that Diệu Lan withholds, chiefly the trip she took with Hương and Ngọc to visit the grave of Ngọc’s aborted fetus. Diệu Lan lies to Minh about Sáng’s and Thuận’s absence, telling him they are “[o]n their way” (298).