Story of an innocent and carefree little girl whose father is a member of the anti-French resistance.
Following the 1954 Geneva Accords that partitioned Vietnam into two zones at the 17th parallel, a pregnant Dịu remains back in the South with her family while her husband has to move up North. At home, the young woman has to juggle between the duties of a liberation fighter and a mother while enduring her enemies' tortures and imprisonment, as she assumes the leadership of an underground liberation movement after its previous secretary was assassinated
Hoa is a young engineer and computer specialist who arranges the database of an institution. She is hardworking, yet her dedication goes unnoticed, and her boss dismisses her work and expertise as “redundant”.
In the final days of the war, Duyên faces a daily struggle to take care of her young son and ailing father-in-law, all the while hiding from them the fact that her husband has recently been killed in battle.
A government minister from Hanoi has a car accident on the way to a wedding in a remote village. The county hospital does not have the authority to operate on a minister. The county commissioner would like the operation done in the county for the prestige it would bring, but will not authorize it without the approval of the whole county committee. The hospital director has filled his quota, so does not want to take the risk of an operation. Since a telephone call to Hanoi has to be booked two days in advance, the minister's wife cannot be contacted, nor can a helicopter be arranged to move the minister to Hanoi.
Discharged from the Army after losing an arm in the battlefield, Lê Vân returns home. He seeks to help rebuild it, but realises that a life spent fighting has made him disconnected from the villagers and their ideas.
A soldier (Hien) survives the war and comes back to live with his brother's family (Tien). He can't seem to adjust to civilian life after the war and feels increasingly alienated from other people, whom he finds calculating, selfish and materialistic.
An engineer devises a plan that will help a farm improve its staggering business, but is dismissed the farm’s manager.