In early 20th century Vietnam, a nobleman scorns everything Western after his beautiful fiance dies in an auto wreck and forces the poor villagers to destroy all their "modern" possessions. Loosely based on the novel "Chùa Đàn" by Nguyễn Tuân

Toward the end of 1946, residents from all walks of Hanoi struggle to avoid—and eventually accept—the possibility of a full-blown war.