In 1981, six years after the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, Tan, a young former Vietcong officer, goes to take the ashes of his dead comrade, Thai, to his family in a remote area. On the overcrowded train out of Ho Chi Min City, he meets Mien, a former soldier and witness to Thai's death.

Two pilots and their beloveds, all of whom are close friends, try to navigate their lives separate from one another as the men transition to combat.

Nguyet is an orphaned child living with her grandma in a seaside village of devout Catholics. When the village becomes a battlefield, the grandma, enraged by the fact her son died due to Vietcong mine traps, begins throwing grenades against the winning Vietcong soldiers. To ensure a strategical victory, Dung, a young combatant, is deployed to gun down the old woman.

Phụng falls in love with the blind craftsman Hai Cảnh working for her family’s pottery business and marries him. But when she receives her infertility diagnosis, Phụng decides to find another woman who can bear his children.

Returning from long years studying abroad, Lâm finds out that his childhood sweetheart Sơn Ca has married another man. When Sơn Ca files for separation due to her husband's adultery, the two begins seeing each other again and rekindling the old flame.