Two brothers are separated by communism and a sister, a former imperial concubine turned Buddhist nun

Vixna and her two children are lured from the safety of Paris by her husband, a officer in Pol Pot's army, back to Cambodia where they undergo brainwashing and enslavement by the Khmer Rouge.

Sai is forced to marry Tuyet at the age of ten and leaves his home by the river wharf to live with an old man named Kien. As the war against France accelerates, Sai enlists to fight and falls in love with another woman named Huong. While the affair is fated not to last, Tuyet struggles to keep her marriage together.

Binh is a South Vietnamese soldier whose wife Nga turns to a life of prostitution after Binh is classified as missing. When Binh does return, he finds it impossible to forgive the repentant Nga. The couple's doomed future continues, as Binh joins the Vietnamese Special Forces and a friend struggles to reunite the two.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff want to send some ARVNSF troops to North's Điện Biên Phủ for the Dien Bien Phu Operation. But all have been caught or killed by the Chinese spy Kiều Loan, except Major Ngọc Minh.