This novel contains several narratives braided together through the unnamed character’s scattered recollections. He cannot recover his habitual life in the civilian world. His attempt to reintegrate is so troubling that he’s pushed to the point where he considers himself disabled. As he pages through his diary, and recordings reveal a reshaping to understanding his past. Struggling to forget hazing experiences, everywhere he goes, any detail can drum up the past events. The more he tries to forget, the more he is convinced that he’s returned to a previous time when he was initially drafted to serve.

He not only focuses on himself, but also visits the lives of others who have experienced very similar situations.

Goodbye, Bird begins with an unnamed narrator flicking through his journal. He has written that he is 28 years old on every page of his journal to remind himself that he hasn’t accomplished much in his life. Some time ago, he was discharged from the army and is now back home, trying to build a life as a civilian. He has been working to save money, because he wants to buy a gun and kill his former commanding officer. Now that he has earned enough, he is quitting his job.