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.
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Production companies:
Character: Joseph
Character: Madame Dufresne, la mère
Character: Agosti
Character: Suzanne
Character: Le père Bart
Character: Monsieur Jo
Character: Carmen
Character: Le caporal
Character: M. Khing
Character: Le père Sok
Character: La femme de Pierre
Character: Pierre
Character: A'chan
Character: A'sok
Character: Le chef du village
Character: M. Bideau
Character: M. Jouve
Character: Jeune agent du cadastre
Character: L'agent du cadastre
Character: Le capitaine français
Character: Le sergent français
Character: La femme du colonel
Character: Le chauffeur de M. Jo
Character: La femme française élégante
Character: La deuxième femme française
Character: Le civil français
Character: Le milicien au porte-voix
Character: Le passager
Character: Le bagnard