A small traveling circus from Hanoi arrives at a village struck down by famine, trying to sell magic and dreams.

In post-war Saigon, the son of a prominent police officer befriends a young woman he met in a vehicle accident. But beneath his new girlfriend's irresistible charm and striking beauty lies a menacing secret.

After the war a young woman from Saigon goes to the countryside at the call of the government to teach love of country to the local people. There she finds that she doesn't really believe in what she teaches, that she's not really interested in the butterflies and birds of the poems she recites and is terribly bored in the countryside.

A poor farmer leaves his home to become a miner, hoping to strike it rich in the new gold rush.