The story is about the french rubber-plantation owner Eliane in French-Indochina during the thirties until the Decolonialisation and Communist takeover in the fifties.Eliane adopted a vietnamese girl, Camille.The close relationship between mother and daughter got disturbed with the arrival of the Navy Officer Jean-Baptiste.Eliane and Camille fall in love with him.But Jean-Baptiste got attracted to Camille and they come together.Eliane then arranges, that Jean-Baptiste got transferred to the Tonkin-Islands.Camille follows him, and made her first experiences with the country and the people.But Jean-Baptiste dies, and she comes to prison.At prison she becomes a communist activist, celebrated after her release by the new communist government.