Banyan Moon

Present day: Ann, an illustrator, attends a party for her boyfriend Noah’s parents’ 30th wedding anniversary. Noah, a classics professor, hosts the party—an extravagant affair in a ballroom, but he worries that his parents will find fault with it. Noah’s parents are wealthy, and he has lived a very different life from that of Ann. Ann has not been feeling herself lately, suffering from headaches and nausea. 

Ann socializes with Noah’s family and friends and feels more and more alienated from their world. Alice, Noah’s mother, talks to her about the “price of motherhood” (25), including morning sickness, and Ann suddenly realizes that she is pregnant. Later, Noah’s sister-in-law insinuates that Noah’s parents do not approve of Ann. When Ann asks Noah if this is true, he brushes her off, saying they can talk about it later. Ann goes to the bathroom and vomits. In the bathroom, she meets Alexis, Noah’s girlfriend from high school. She looks at Ann with a kind of pity that makes Ann uncomfortable. Later, she sees Alexis and Noah talking together. When Noah and Ann return home, Noah tells Ann that he has been having an affair with Alexis. Ann vomits on his shoes. 

Minh is in the hospital following a fall. She has a broken hip, and she knows that she is dying, though her doctors can’t identify anything life-threatening in her tests. She does not like the coffee that they serve in the hospital. Minh misses Ann and wishes they could drink coffee together again—a ritual they once shared. In the corner of her hospital room, Minh sees a “shadow-being.” Though she knows the shadow-being is not real, she wonders if it is her husband or her father, and tells it not to rush her. She asks for one more year to get her affairs in order.

Hương goes to the beach. She is surprised to see someone swimming there in February. She thinks of her daughter, Ann, who lives in Michigan now. The swimmer comes out of the ocean. He tells Hương she should swim the next time she comes to the beach, as the water is still nice despite the cold weather. Hương replies that she cannot swim. The swimmer encourages her to learn.

Hương goes to the Banyan House to visit Minh. Minh is asleep, and Hương thinks about her father, who died when she was young. They all lived in Vietnam then: Minh, Hương, her father, and her brother, Phước. After Hương’s father died, Minh moved herself and her children to Florida. When Minh wakes up, Hương asks her if she has heard from Ann. Hương and Ann do not talk to each other very often anymore; the last time Ann called was to ask advice on how to make thịt kho, a Vietnamese dish. Despite the distance between them, Hương prints all of Ann’s illustrations that she publishes on her blog and keeps them in an album. She also leaves encouraging anonymous comments on Ann’s blog. Hương walks through the Banyan House and wishes her mother would throw away all of the stuff she has accumulated over the years. Minh tries to confess something to Hương, but Hương dodges the conversation by doing the dishes. 

Noah pleads with Ann to forgive him for his affair. He assures her that it only happened “a few times” (50). Ann is numb. She tells Noah that she wants to take a break from their relationship and goes to sleep. Ann dreams of a fire sweeping through a valley. In the morning she goes to a store to buy pregnancy tests. The tests confirm what she already knows: She is pregnant. She calls Minh to tell her, but Minh does not answer.

Hương is woken in the night by a phone call telling her that her mother has died. Wracked with grief, she tries not to wake Duke, her lover, who is asleep beside her. Hương thinks about how Minh used to make her and her brother cháo (chicken porridge) when they were sick. 

Hương calls Ann to tell her about Minh. She knows that there is no way to break the news to Ann gently. Ann is devastated and angry that no one told her that Minh was sick. She tells Hương that she will never know how much she loved Minh. Hương replies that Ann was not the only one who loved her. To Hương’s surprise, Ann says that she is coming home.

Ann prepares to go to Florida. Noah is upset that she is leaving with their issues unresolved, but Ann is determined. She does not tell Noah that she is pregnant. On the plane, she realizes that Noah never met Minh and wonders how she could have lived with someone who knew so little about her family and her past. Ann arrives at the Banyan House and remembers her childhood growing up in the mansion. Ann and Hương reunite and Hương invites Ann inside. The Banyan House is full of stuff: Minh had become a hoarder in her later years. Hương tells Ann that she is only staying at the house temporarily to sort through all of Minh’s things. Ann replies that her visit is also a temporary one. Hương explains Minh’s fall, her recovery at home, and her death from an embolism. Ann is angry that no one told her that Ming was sick, and Hương protests that Minh made her promise not to tell Ann.

Hương calls the Banyan House a “shrine” to Ann and points out all the photos of Ann and the copy of her diploma. Hương suggests, with a hint of bitterness, that Ann was a third child to Minh. They discuss the funeral plans and the reading of Minh’s will, which will happen on the weekend. Ann sees a strange shadow in the corner of the room. She asks Hương to stay with her for a bit and imagines that she is sitting next to Minh.

Hương drives to the beach while Ann sleeps. Her grief over her mother’s death feels complicated. She sees the swimmer in the water again and is entranced by the purpose of his movements. Her own purpose used to be “an intact family…A mother and a father for [her] beautiful child” (69). This dream is long gone, and she still does not know how to find another one. 

She recalls the breaking point in her relationship with Ann. When Ann was a teenager, she lived with Hương and Hương’s then husband, Gary. Ann wanted to go out one night during a thunderstorm. Gary tried to stop her because he was worried she would damage his new car. Hương also tried to get Ann to stay, but she did not listen to either of them. Later, Gary and Hương learned that Ann had been in a car crash. Hương rushed to the hospital, only to learn that Ann only had a sprained wrist. Gary refused to come to the hospital to see her, and Hương knew that their relationship was over. In her anger at her daughter, Hương slapped Ann across the face. The next morning, when Ann got out of the hospital, she moved all her things back into the Banyan House with Minh. No matter how many times Hương begged her to come home, she never did.

The swimmer waves at Hương and asks her if she has started learning how to swim yet. Later, Hương signs up for swimming lessons.