Seventeen-year-old Loi, the result of a wartime affair between an American soldier and her Vietnamese mother, has been treated with disdain by the others in her village for her entire life. However, Loi`s beauty has won her the unwanted attentions of a powerful but cruel older man and her parents have agreed to his request that she marry him. Already in love with kindly Khai, a buffalo herder, Loi escapes to Ho Chi Minh City where she plans to reunite with Khai. However, when Khai doesn`t arrive, Loi explores the possibility of immigrating to the United States to search for her father.