Milpitas, California, Early 1990s

The main setting for this novel is a suburb in the Bay Area of California called Milpitas. Hero arrives in Milpitas in the summer of 1990 and the rest of the novel occurs over the next few years. It is a Filipino-American immigrant community and functions as a microcosm of the Philippines; the inhabitants have brought with them traditional Filipino cuisine, social structures, customs, and languages, and find comfort and unity in the familiarity.

The Restaurant, Early 1990s

Rosalyn’s grandparents’ Filipino restaurant at the strip mall beside Mai’s hair salon, where Rosalyn works, is at the heart of the novel. Hero, Roni, and Rosalyn feel most at home in the restaurant and develop a ritual of spending their days and evenings there, eating barbeque, watching films, doing homework, and chatting.

The Philippines, 1960s-90s

The prologue takes place mostly in the Philippines in the...