Hồng Kim Hạnh

In hopes of getting her family out of poverty, 17-year-old Mai follows a neighbour's offer and leaves her small fishing village in Central Vietnam to work as a seamstress in Saigon, not knowing her neighbour had sold her into prostitution, and a grisly fate awaits her upon arrival.

After the war, a soldier returns to his hometown. Far from his expectations of peace and happiness, the village is rife with turbulence, misogyny and outdated customs.