Trang and Quynh: sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as ' bar girls', paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be. Phong: one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a 'bui doi': more than the 'dust of life'. Dan: A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Vietnam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent. This is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author.