The book is about refugees en route to, and in, Norway. Through the life journeys of two generations of Vietnamese refugees, the book presents and examines their varied experiences with an ethnographic eye. The first few chapters describe the conditions under which the Vietnamese were compelled to flee their homeland. The subsequent chapters wander widely over a range of topics, including the refugees' encounter with relief services, the experience of the Vietnamese middleclass as refugees, adapting to Norwegian culture, young people in exile, melancholy and pain, and the specific stories of a middle-aged man and a widow.