While being imprisoned on a remote island for leading a naval-yard workers' strike, a man reminisces about his former days as a naval mechanic and the life back in his hometown.

A family living in poverty faces financial difficulties while striving to educate their daughters. The mother resorts to extraordinary measures to procure the traditional silk dresses needed for her kids to attend school.

Công has a crush on Hiền, though she finds his relentless pursuit annoying and is more passionate about football. When Hiền applies to join the school’s football team, her skills impresses the coach who then decides to make her the new goalkeeper. Unhappy with the coach’s favourable guidance towards Hiền, Công and the replaced goalkeeper Tiểu Mai begin to cause problems.

Hanh is a dutiful wife and school teacher in a rural Vietnamese village who appears to enjoy a happy marriage. Childless, she insists her husband Phoung, the local school headmaster, take a second wife to bear him a baby. But in the small village, their secret is impossible to keep for long.

At the age of 17, Luu is raped by her master. When the young girl falls pregnant and gossips arise in the master’s social circle, he strips her family of their land and banishes them from the estate. Left with little means to support themselves, the family moves to Bac Lieu with Cu, the kind-hearted farmer who marries Luu, and tries to foster a new life here, though remnants of the past is bound to return one day.