From the deck of a ship in July of 1947, the Australian soldier, Exley, stares out at the picturesque mountainside pastel villas in the harbor of a British Imperialist colony in East Asia. After admiring the beautiful homes of the city, he returns to his barracks, which are covered in mold. His roommate, Roy Rymson, played his jazz records constantly in their shared living quarters. In addition to jazz, Rysom passed time by doing imitations of languages and accents. During a peaceful time period, the two soldiers find themselves mind-numbingly bored.

During the day, Exley reports to the thirteen-story office in town where he works in a small cubicle on a lower floor with other officers. At night, he walked from his barracks where Rysom frequented for the sex work areas of the district or grabbing dinner. Exley describes his surroundings as filthy and wishes to be home and clean of the war. 

In August, Exley is assigned the task of interrogating a Japanese officer who is charged with violating prisoner of war standards. He interviews the prisoners and learns of their appalling stories of neglect and abuse under the control of the officer. Later that month, Exley goes to the mainland docks where he sits down with Chinese and Malaysian officers. One of the officers tries to convince him that the officer on trial is not guilty of a crime but Exley refutes this, saying he crossed the line between soldiering and sadism when he tied prisoners to a tree and ate human flesh. Together, they ponder the question of the difference between war casualities and murder. 

In September, Exley is invited to attend a wedding at a Catholic church nearby and he feels like an outsider when the priest addresses the congregation in Latin. Exley talks to his typist, Rita Xavier, about her experiences in the war as a young girl. He walks her home and she thanks him for inviting her to the wedding. Exley attends another wedding where he hits on a pregnant wife of one of his fellow officers and leaves feeling badly about his behavior and goes to drink alone in a bar. 

In the spring, Exley runs into Rita on her way to King’s Theater and agrees to meet him for lunch after he makes a trip to the tailor’s. At the tailor’s, he meets the shop owner’s wife, who shows him her severely ill child. Exley runs to get Rita who advises him to take the child to the hospital. When he returns to the tailor’s where he takes the wife and her child in a taxi to the hospital to get treatment.