While serving in Viet Nam, Jack Abbott had met and fallen in love with a young Vietnamese woman he had known only as Mai Yun. When Jack's military service ended he returned to her village, but not knowing her real name, it was impossible to find her. Unknown to Jack, Mai Yun being pregnant with his son, had moved to a safer place. She later married a Vietnamese man with the last name Volien, and together they had a daughter they named Mai. When the war ended the women had been separated from the men. Mai Yun later found out that her husband had died, but that her and Jack's son, remained among the missing.

In 1994, Christine Blair became friends with the owner of her favorite restaurant, The Saigon Shack, which was run by a Vietnamese woman named Luan. When Luan was shot in a robbery at the restaurant, she pleaded with Christine to find her son, Keemo, before she might die. Christine and Paul Williams traveled to Viet Nam, where they found handsome 20 year old Keemo who was belligerent and resentful, assuming that his mother had abandoned him in Viet Nam as a child. But they convinced Keemo to return with them to Genoa City. After a tearful reunion, Luan recovered from her wounds. Keemo moved in with Luan and her teenaged daughter Mai. From the stories Luan told her, Christine deduced that Jack had been Luan's lover while he was a soldier in Viet Nam, and that Jack had fathered Keemo. Christine made sure that Jack and Luan were reunited. Luan told Keemo that Jack was his father, which angered Keemo because he had always believed that his American father had deserted them. When Keemo learned how Jack and Luan had been separated, he accepted Jack as his father.

Luan brought out a softer side seldom seen in Jack. They were married in a beautiful wedding. The bride wore Vietnamese traditional red, and Keemo as best man wore white. Luan had been ill, but she did not tell Jack. They became a very close family, including Luan's teenage daughter, Mai. Ironically, Jack inadvertently discovered that Luan had a terminal illness. He resolved to keep his knowledge a secret so that her remaining months with him would be happy.

Jack was devastated when Luan died. When Keemo discovered that Jack had known that Luan had been seriously ill, he accused his father of stealing precious time that he and his sister Mai could have spent with their mother. But, eventually, Keemo forgave his father. To Jack's disappointment, Keemo announced that he was returning to Viet Nam. Jack has only mentioned Keemo a few times in passing since, regretful that he was no longer in his life. In 2022, Jack received news that Keemo had died of a heart attack in Los Angeles but was delighted to discover that Keemo had a daughter Allie who was in her 20s working on her masters in chemical engineering. He moved her into Abbott Manor and she began interning at Jabot.