The novel begins with introducing the way of life of Filipinos Mike, Magda, Modesto, and Ali in the bar Freedom Pad.

Modesto, who visits his friend Mike at Freedom Pad, works at Subic Naval Base, where an American Navy official Johnson frequently insults him.

Ali, who frequents Freedom Pad, takes care of his nephew Jeffrey every day in a posh bungalow in the white community of Olongapo with his Filipino assistant Igna.

Magdalena also fell in love with an American soldier, Steve Taylor, whom Magda considered kind and gentlemanly, unlike her former companions.

Filipino workers and William Smith try to stop the two, but were eventually killed by an American, who may have been Johnson himself or his companion, Modesto.

As he admits this, Mike suddenly remembered the oppression of his fellow Filipinos by the Americans: the murder of Modesto, the robbery of Ali, and the abandonment of Dolores and her son.

The novel ends with Magdalena, while crying and holding Mike's hand, declares her son's name to be Michael Taylor III.