The Mission District is a San Francisco neighborhood David Sheff crosses during a desperate search for his missing son, Nic. The book presents it not as a settled portrait of the neighborhood but as one possible place where Nic might appear—a segment of a father’s uncertain route through a city where he fears his son may be hurt or dying.

Place in the Search

On a cool, overcast morning, David sets out knowing the search may be futile. He crosses the Golden Gate Bridge intending to scour the Haight and the Mission District, neighborhoods where he suspects Nic might turn up. He drives aimlessly through the Mission, then crosses town, parks on Ashbury, and continues on foot along Haight Street. The route makes the Mission a waypoint in a search driven by suspicion rather than reliable information: David has no confirmed address or sighting to guide him.

The Search Continues in the Haight

The narrative gives the Haight more physical and social detail than it gives the Mission. There, David enters Amoeba, Nic’s preferred record store, and looks into cafés and bookstores. He sees street-involved young people whom he describes as visibly unwell, and asks some of them whether they know his son. They ignore him or glare. These encounters belong to the search that begins with the Mission and moves across the city, but the book does not assign the Haight’s specific street scene to the Mission District.

Narrative Significance

The Mission’s role is defined by the limits of David’s knowledge. It is among the neighborhoods he thinks Nic might visit, yet driving through it produces no answer and no contact with his son. The passage then moves from aimless travel to a more focused walk through the Haight, only to meet further uncertainty. In this sequence, the Mission marks one part of a search whose geography expands faster than David’s ability to know where Nic is.