The film centers on a young French widow and her two adolescent children as they attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930s. Their efforts are hampered each year by the presence of the sea, which invariably floods the fields with saltwater and wipes out the crops. In desperation, the mother realizes that their only hope lies in the construction of a sea wall to prevent continued flooding, but the mother must cut a swath through the local bureaucracy in an almost Sisyphean attempt to make this happen. Meanwhile, her obstinate daughter, Suzanne, draws the romantic obsessions of a well-to-do Chinese gentleman, Monsieur Jo. Though he could easily provide a way out, the possibility of a romantic relationship between Jo and Suzanne could just as easily fall prey to local racial prejudices that would damage or ruin the lives of both.
as Joseph
as Madame Dufresne, la mère
as Agosti
as Suzanne
as Le père Bart
as Monsieur Jo
as Carmen
as Le caporal
as M. Khing
as Le père Sok
as La femme de Pierre
as Pierre
as A'chan
as A'sok
as Le chef du village
as M. Bideau
as M. Jouve
as Jeune agent du cadastre
as L'agent du cadastre
as Le capitaine français
as Le sergent français
as La femme du colonel
as Le chauffeur de M. Jo
as La femme française élégante
as La deuxième femme française
as Le civil français
as Le milicien au porte-voix
as Le passager
as Le bagnard
