A young songstress begins to receive a mysterious, austere guest who lodges overnight at her inn.

Sơn applies to clerk for a director at a research institute but is instead assigned to spy on Linh, the director's beloved daughter. Offered a generous sum of salary while still struggling a secure a job, the young man happily undertakes the peculiar duty with great prudence, much to Linh's chagrin.

At a rural village where most men have perished in the revolutions against French colonisers, their remaining widows and grieving mothers must bear the brunt of rigid patriarchal expectations placed upon them.