Ushi Hirosaki has to marry according to Japanese tradition before her 30th birthday. Because time is running out, her family decides she has to marry a huge sumo wrestler. A rather unfortunate combination, so Ushi wants to look for a nicer candidate herself. She travels halfway around the world to find her dream husband. Along the way she does valiant efforts, for example to learn table manners and to lose her Japanese accent.

The Japanese 18-year old Kiyoshi has been living in the kitchen of his parental home for 2 years. His parents cannot seem to get through to him anymore and they are ashamed of him. To the outside world they pretend that he studies abroad. The only person Kiyoshi communicates to is his little sister. On the internet he has contact with youngsters who have all retreated from society and family life. It is with them that he talks about the things that occupy him most, such as drumming, sex, computer games, films, life and death. When Kiyoshi frightens the dinner guests the family is pushed into crisis.

Theo Staats arrives at his uncle's rubber plantation in 'Our' Indies, The Emerald Belt. He meets Ems, the beautiful singer of the club, and falls head over heels for her. Ems, who comes from a poor Indonesian-European family, does not want to betray her Dutch husband, to whom she owes her status, but she cannot suppress her feelings. The Emerald Belt follows their passionate affair for ten years: from 1939, when the Dutch are carefree and enjoying their colonial power; through the Japanese invasion in 1942 and the difficult war years that will separate the lovers; to the struggle that led to Indonesian independence in 1949, when they are faced with a new choice.