A woman running from her past meets a poor farmer who offers to marry her and raise her newborn as his own. After marrying they struggle to make a happy life together as their family grows and the war rages around them.

The dynamics of a Vietnamese rural village change when an urban woman returns to the village she originally belonged to and begins a love triangle.

Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, insects and water and the way the lighting enhances the subtle use of color. They all combine to gem-like effect here.

A theater troupe reunites in excitement for a new production after having been out of work for a long time, with the performers and their mentor having gone their separate ways to make ends meet. But the bitter fallout from the failed romance between the lead actor and the lead actress—a romance as long ago as her famously beautiful hair—threatens the play's success.

Returning home from their touring opera troupe, actress Lanh has a rendezvous with her now-married former boyfriend, Phong, while leading-lady Xoan is about to be replaced by an understudy because of her pregnancy.