Feature film on romance and social life of the minority ethnic in the Northwest of Vietnam. Mị and A Phủ, a Meo (Hmong) couple, freed themselves with the aid of communist leadership and joined the rising against the French in August 1945. Based on the short story of the same title by Tô Hoài.
Hoài and Vận fall in love during the war against the French. Vận fought as a guerrilla and Vận ferried guerrillas across the river. When peace comes, Vietnam is divided in two across the Bến Hải River, leaving them separated.
At the close of the Sino-Vietnamese border war, a journalist travels to Lạng Sơn in northern Vietnam—the hometown of his former girlfriend—to report on the situation there.
