In the early to mid-1990s, during the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian War, a Bosnian refugee named Jozef Pronek lives in Chicago with a young woman named Andrea, an artist whom he met during a trip to Kiev a couple of years beforehand. She lives with her slobby on-and-off boyfriend who yells anti-immigrant insults the first time he sees Jozef. A former journalist, Jozef takes on a series of awful jobs, including as "kitchen help" at a Boudin Bakery and as a parking lot attendant at Wrigley Field. He deals with feelings of alienation and anxiety over the unknown fate of his parents in Bosnia, whom he hopes will get on a convoy and be taken safely out of the city. The Americans around him are painfully unaware of the situation in Bosnia, which Jozef sometimes watches on television and other times tries to block from his mind. He gets very sick for a while. At one point, Jozef thinks he sees his father fleeing from sniper fire on the news. He eventually gets a job working at a cleaning agency after he is forced to leave Andrea's apartment because her parents sell the place. He moves into a dingy studio and rides the same train to work and back each day. He likes the routine because it stops him from thinking. "And as long as each day was like any other day his life had not ceased. His parents were still alive; they were waiting to get on the convoy, which would leave the city soon and move forward without stopping until it reached its destination."