Chap­ter 3 begins with the nar­ra­tor reflect­ing on her upbring­ing in a home over­whelmed by paper­work and doc­u­men­ta­tion. The clut­ter sur­round­ing her dai­ly life became a defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic of her family’s his­to­ry, with invoic­es, old sub­scrip­tions, and her mother’s Cam­bo­di­an pass­port serv­ing as tan­gi­ble pieces of evi­dence of their past. This envi­ron­ment shaped her iden­ti­ty, fos­ter­ing a deep-seat­ed obses­sion with archiv­ing and orga­ni­za­tion. It’s this ear­ly expe­ri­ence that influ­enced her lat­er career choice as a civ­il ser­vant, where struc­ture and bureau­cra­cy are inte­gral to her pro­fes­sion­al life. The con­stant pres­ence of paper­work became more than just a backdrop—it instilled in her the belief that every­thing must be record­ed, doc­u­ment­ed, and pre­served, shap­ing her world­view and approach to life.

As the chap­ter unfolds, atten­tion shifts to the narrator’s rela­tion­ship with Gra­ham, an expat who is strug­gling to adjust to mod­ern life. While Gra­ham embraces cer­tain aspects of the 21st cen­tu­ry, such as appre­ci­at­ing clas­si­cal com­posers like Bach and Tchaikovsky, he is also high­ly crit­i­cal of con­tem­po­rary cul­ture and art. His dis­dain for mod­ern films frus­trates the nar­ra­tor, lead­ing her to reflect on the cul­tur­al divide that sep­a­rates them. Graham’s refusal to engage ful­ly with the present day cre­ates ten­sion in their inter­ac­tions, as the narrator’s desire for con­nec­tion with him is com­pli­cat­ed by his reluc­tance to embrace the world around him. This dynam­ic under­scores a broad­er theme of how indi­vid­u­als adjust—or fail to adjust—to new envi­ron­ments and the dif­fi­cul­ties of rec­on­cil­ing the past with the present.

As the nar­ra­tive pro­gress­es, the expats are sub­ject­ed to tests that assess their empa­thy and hon­esty, resem­bling psy­cho­log­i­cal eval­u­a­tions. These tests serve to expose the psy­cho­log­i­cal strug­gles and ten­sions that exist among the group, high­light­ing their vary­ing degrees of resis­tance to the notion of moder­ni­ty. Some expats express out­right dis­dain for the con­tem­po­rary world, show­ing a deep-seat­ed inabil­i­ty to adapt. Graham’s reac­tion to the test­ing process, in par­tic­u­lar, sig­nals under­ly­ing issues, sug­gest­ing that his emo­tion­al dis­tress is a result of the chal­lenges he faces in adjust­ing to life in this new time. His reac­tions draw atten­tion to the emo­tion­al toll of their exis­tence as time trav­el­ers, unable to ful­ly con­nect with the world they now inhab­it. This adds lay­ers to the sto­ry, as it becomes clear that the strug­gles of the expats go far beyond their exter­nal cir­cum­stances and delve into their inner emo­tion­al bat­tles.

The chap­ter then delves into the shared expe­ri­ences of the expats as they attempt to nav­i­gate life togeth­er. How­ev­er, their iso­la­tion is accen­tu­at­ed by their dis­tinct his­tor­i­cal back­grounds, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for them to tru­ly bond with one anoth­er. The idea of com­mu­nal din­ners is intro­duced as a poten­tial solu­tion to these iso­la­tion issues, offer­ing a chance for the expats to come togeth­er and con­nect on a more per­son­al lev­el. These din­ners high­light the stark dif­fer­ences in how expats from dif­fer­ent eras approach social inter­ac­tion and iden­ti­ty. The gulf between the past and present becomes increas­ing­ly evi­dent, as the expats strug­gle to find com­mon ground and under­stand one anoth­er, often feel­ing dis­con­nect­ed from the world around them. The ten­sion between his­tor­i­cal iden­ti­ties and the need for mod­ern social­iza­tion becomes a key point of con­flict with­in the nar­ra­tive.

Amid these strug­gles, the nar­ra­tor also reflects on her own iden­ti­ty, shaped by the finan­cial pru­dence of her past. This reflec­tion is col­ored by a desire for recog­ni­tion from Gra­ham, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing their dynam­ic. As a heat­wave begins to set­tle in, the uncom­fort­able weath­er exac­er­bates the ten­sions between the char­ac­ters, cre­at­ing a sense of unease that spills into their rela­tion­ships. In an attempt to bridge the gap between her and Gra­ham, the nar­ra­tor buys him a new bike, hop­ing to forge a con­nec­tion through shared expe­ri­ences. This ges­ture high­lights her long­ing for con­nec­tion, yet it also expos­es the lim­i­ta­tions of their rela­tion­ship, as Graham’s ini­tial inep­ti­tude on the bike under­scores his dif­fi­cul­ty adjust­ing to mod­ern life. His fas­ci­na­tion with the past becomes evi­dent through his con­ver­sa­tions, reveal­ing his strug­gle to rec­on­cile his expe­ri­ences with the present world around him. Their shared attempts to adapt to their new lives, though mean­ing­ful, expose both their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and lim­i­ta­tions.

The chap­ter clos­es with an unset­tling mys­tery sur­round­ing one of the expats, intro­duc­ing a sense of intrigue that adds depth to the nar­ra­tive. This mys­tery hints at deep­er, poten­tial­ly sin­is­ter issues with­in the time-trav­el project, rais­ing ques­tions about the true nature of the expats’ expe­ri­ences. The unre­solved ten­sion sur­round­ing this plot point leaves read­ers intrigued, sug­gest­ing that there is more to uncov­er as the sto­ry pro­gress­es. As the chap­ter ends, the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of the char­ac­ters’ rela­tion­ships, com­bined with the mount­ing sense of mys­tery, lays the ground­work for the next phase of the nar­ra­tive. The read­er is left eager to dis­cov­er how the expats will con­tin­ue to nav­i­gate their time-trav­el­ing exis­tence, and what con­se­quences may arise from their strug­gles to adapt to their new lives.