- We open onto a description of prostitutes and transgendered people hanging out on the streets of New York City. It looks like Son is in the heart of it all, although we're not sure if this is a memory or the present.
- Soon enough, though, we realize that it's the present. Son looks around and thinks about how much America has changed since he left it. He wonders where all the Gideons and Thérèses (i.e. immigrant workers) go when they come to New York, because he doesn't see any on the streets.
- He walks into a Hilton Hotel with four hundred dollars in his pocket and gets a room. He gets a little sass from the person at the front desk, but gets himself a room and walks into it feeling depressed.
- We find out that Son got back into the States by using Gideon's passport and Jade's plane ticket. Now his plan is to wait in his room until Jadine shows up. The longer he waits, the more paranoid he becomes that he has come to the wrong hotel and that Jade will never find him.
- He feels like now that Jade is coming to meet him, he has something to live for. For the first time in his life, he thinks about his future instead of just getting from day to day.
- Meanwhile, we follow Jade, who is sitting in a New York cab and peering over her pile of luggage in the seat in front of her.
- When she gets to Son's hotel, she doesn't call ahead. She just gets his room number and shows up at his door.
- When they're together, the narrator introduces a phrase that we're going to hear a lot of in the coming pages. It goes like this: "But he insisted on Eloe." Eloe, you see, is the all-black Florida town that Son is originally from. He thinks it's the best place in the world, and not even New York's tall buildings and fancy shops can steer him away from it.
- Despite his insistence, Son and Jade move into a sublet in New York and live there for a few months while Jade does modeling work and Son picks up whatever work he can. Jade is happy to see that all her girlfriends find Son hot and want to get with him.
- While they're talking about Valerian one night, Son asks Jade if she still likes the old man. She says yes, since he put her through school and gave her all her opportunities in life. Son doesn't seem to think that this is reason enough to like a rich, white man who fires people without thinking about how those people will survive afterward.
- One day, Son and Jade see a black woman with a shaved head screaming at a man in the middle of traffic. They calm her down and bring her to a restaurant where they buy her lunch.
- All the while, Son continues to insist that they move to his hometown of Eloe. After a few more weeks, they decide to leave together for Son's hometown.