The narrator and his friends arrive in the city to finish the trial of their father. The narrator tells them that they're here to try their old friend, who killed his brother and father. He says that he would have killed them if they hadn't come to try him. They're not there to try his friend, he says, because he's not part of the trial. They come from the "memory palace," the place where he spent his childhood. He tells them he'd killed his father and then spent the rest of his life in the hospital. He'd lost his life, but his friend would never give up on him. He brought him his life back. They find the body of his brother on the floor. He paid for his child when he was drugged out, bought her clothes, and used his earnings to help support her. He destroyed numerous families. They see empty chairs at every holiday. They don't want their friend to be a murderer, they want him to be punished for what he did. He can't do anything about it, they say. He won't change, they tell him, for a moment, but he'll become a murderer like his friend. He doesn't know what to do with himself. He looks for a way to get out of it. He wants to be sorry for the people he hurt, and he wants to know that he will always be sorry. This is the story he tells of his father. A bad man, a good man, too. He hopes that his next life will be kinder for everyone.