 Mai, a student from an art school, is invited to perform a leading role in a film about the War against the Americans. While shooting, Mai falls in love with the director who was a soldier during the war and who is trying to make a film glorifying the war by using Vietnamese actors and actresses born after the Communist victory in 1975. Mai is really just in love with his "romantic past" without really understanding it. Mai leaves in order to face the reality of her present life among friends of her own generation. The movies explores the conflict between the older generation of Vietnamese, who romanticize their role in "liberating" the country from foreign aggressors, and younger people, who are more fun-loving, consumer-oriented, and cosmopolitan. The older characters in the movie repeatedly criticize the country s youth for not appreciating the contribution of their parents generation.