The story opens with the narrator, a thirty-year-old man. He's just returned from a trip to China, and he's very upset. He wants to know what's going on between him and the man he just met. The narrator tells us that the man has been holding him back, and that's why the man is so drunk. He also tells the narrator that he has been spotted flirting with the man, but that he hasn't been able to get the man to say anything about it. He asks the narrator to let him go, and the narrator tells him that he'll respect the man's opinion, even if it means that he won't be able to have sex with him anymore. He then tells the man that he just received a call from his sister, and she doesn't need to worry about anything.