Summary

The kid also known as Frank has always lived with the Old Man, and does not know much about where he comes from or his own story. His father (not the Old Man) calls on him to help him make a journey through the wilderness to a specific place where he would like to die. He is suffering from a failing liver due to alcoholism. Throughout the course of the journey Frank learns his history through the stories of his father, and also narrates some of his own childhood experiences. His father tells of his time as a child, the abuse of his mother, the death of his father (Frank's grandfather), the Vietnam war, meeting Frank's mother, and how she died. Frank tells of each time that he saw his father as a child and thier subsequent shattered relationship. He is able to forgive his father before he dies, and buries him before returning home.