Hãng Phim Giải Phóng

In 1981, six years after the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, Tan, a young former Vietcong officer, goes to take the ashes of his dead comrade, Thai, to his family in a remote area. On the overcrowded train out of Ho Chi Min City, he meets Mien, a former female soldier and witness to Thai's death.

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.

The year 1963 drags on heavily. Rumors about the US-backed coup are spreading. Ngo Dinh Diem's ​​government continues to suffer from a severe loss of popularity that is still worsening. Two lots of trafficked drugs from the Golden Triangle to South Vietnam have vanished into thin air. Luan sets out on what may be his final collaboration with Ngo Dinh Nhu.

In post-war Vietnam, a talented piano student and doctor in training begin a doomed love affair.

Luan continues to serve as the governor of Kien Hoa province and receives classified information sent by Y5, an agent installed by Kien Hoa Security in the Communist Party of Vietnam. He tries to identify Y5. The coup in 1960 ends with victory for the Republic's government, but unrest soon proves this result impermanent.

In 1955 Tay Ninh, the National United Front is established and gives Ngo Dinh Diem's government an ultimatum: reform or attack. Luan continues to handle his new rise of popularity within sociopolitical circles in South Vietnam. He goes to Da Lat for a vacation, where a meeting between him and a young woman has been arranged.

Nguyet is an orphaned child living with her grandma in a seaside village of devout Catholics. When the village becomes a battlefield, the grandma, enraged by the fact her son died due to Vietcong mine traps, begins throwing grenades against the winning Vietcong soldiers. To ensure a strategical victory, Dung, a young combatant, is deployed to gun down the old woman.

After the Geneva Convention, Viet Minh cadres are gathered to the North. There are also many who secretly stayed. Among them is Robert Nguyen Thanh Luan. He returns to Vinh Long, part of the diocese of Bishop Peter Ngo Dinh Thuc, who has known his Catholic family for long. The bishop adopts him into the Ngo family, where he begins associating with Ngo Dinh Nhu, the Vice President and Presidential Consultant of the Republic of Vietnam.

The Government of the Republic of Vietnam is subjected to military attacks and protests everywhere. Law 10-59 is enacted. Luan is sent to the United States for further military course training. Upon his return in early 1961, Ngo Dinh Diem decides to make him the governor of Kien Hoa province (Ben Tre today) to conduct the Pacification Program, with special privileges at his disposal.

In 1959, Luan is appointed Commander of the Great Flood Operations and of Binh Duong's Security Corps, with full authority to stabilize this province. The Liaison Department of the Republic of Vietnam, under the support of the United States, send commandos to North Vietnam for reconnaissance. If the commandos successfully infiltrate, they will respond to South Vietnam with a tango. Tango No. 1 and Tango No. 2 have failed. What will become of the third tango?

In 1963, amidst tense relations with Buddhism that may face international backlash, the Ngo family try to find a way around the situation, calling on Luan for missions worth his life. Saigon is heated. A coup may be under preparations. Tran Le Xuan goes on a diplomatic tour of Western nations, determined to clear names.

After a tumultuous arrival and subsequent stay in Da Lat for military training, Luan returns to Saigon a Major in the Presidential Special Forces. He and Thuy Dung continue their relationship. News that Ngo Dinh Diem is opening the Ban Me Thuot's Highland Economic Fair attracts many intelligence and security organizations, whose political purposes vary.

A woman manages to escape from the Khmer Rouge labour camp. Saved from drowning in river by a group of Vietnamese soldiers, she decided to join them.

A singer begins a love triangle with an actress and a bar girl.

A young cadre of the state is in the board of a re-education programme for bourgeoisies, but the object of its "rehabilitation" turns out to be her mother-in-law who moved South after 1954.

After the war ends, Luy returns home and is now assigned as Commune Secretary of his coastal village. However, his wife is now wedded to Son, a soldier of the formerRepublic of Vietnam regime.