A disgruntled Vietnamese government official in Hanoi accepts drugs from a mysterious street peddler. He is initially annoyed at the peddler for taking advantage of younger war veterans, but soon realizes that these drugs are actually counteract the drugs already laced into the public water. With the help of the peddler's group, the official rises in the Party ranks until, interacting with Western scientists and learning more and more about the technology and spirituality in the government. Eventually, he attends a party where he actually meets the Party Leader, and because of the drug, he sees the Leader in his true form, a shapeless, other-worldly being. Traumatized and left with bleeding marks, his caretakers dismiss his experience as "hallucinations" and he eventually goes to sleep without human confirmation to comfort him.