In Colonial Indo-China in the 1930s, Frenchwoman Éliane Devries is the daughter of a wealthy
widower magnate, Emile.
Together, they manage an expansive rubber plantation, employing many local laborers
whom Éliane refers to as 'coolies.'
Years earlier, she had become the adoptive mother of the Princess of Annam, Camille,
whose birth parents, Prince N'Guyen and his wife, died in a plane crash.
Since she had no children, she willingly raised her in honor of her fallen friends.
She raised her alone on the plantation, educating her in the lavish European lifestyle.
Emile has always been enamored by Camille's beauty, though his intentions are seemingly
not pure at first glance.
One lovely afternoon, a boat race is arranged to entertain the elites.
Emile and his crew of workers win the competition, much to the consternation of the young French
Navy Lieutenant, Jean-Baptiste Le Guen, who rows for the opposing team.
After winning a bet against the Navy Admiral, Éliane and her friend, Yvette, attend an
auction to bid for pieces of artwork.
Coincidentally, Lieutenant Le Guen is also present and begs Éliane to retract her bid
for a painting they both like.
She becomes aghast when he challenges her publicly even though she wins the picture.
The defeated Lieutenant lingers with his humiliation at night, expressing his anger by burning
a local fisherman's boat for disobeying the curfew.
As morning dawns, the Lieutenant grows suspicious and appears at Éliane's plantation to locate
the occupants of the ship he set ablaze, believing they are secretly smuggling opium.
Éliane confirms this, though she defends their actions and has dealt with them accordingly.
She tours Le Guen around the property while also nursing his bleeding nose.
The pair almost kiss, but Éliane rejects his advance.
Eventually, after convincing herself to fall in love again, she accepts Le Guen into her
household in Saigon and starts an affair with him.
However, their romance is discovered by Emile, who has always been protective of Éliane.
Feeling exhausted with him, Le Guen angrily offers to buy her away from him for a large
amount of money before leaving the house.
This interaction is seen by the caretaker, Old Tchung, though he keeps mum about it to
Eliane.
In the evening, Le Guen gambles to earn the dowry Emile asks for.
Éliane appears and frantically asks him to stay, but he denies her to keep her in the
dark about his true intentions.
However, he regrets this and chases her car to ask for forgiveness.
They make love, but Le Guen leaves afterward without saying a word.
A new day arrives, and Camille's childhood friend and suitor, Tahn, returns from Paris
after getting expelled because of his involvement in protesting during the Yên Bái mutiny.
Éliane and Tahn's mother have been discussing the children's future, believing their ties
must bind with marriage.
One day, Éliane and her father are about to attend a joyous celebration called "The
Day of Tranquility" when they witness the Indo-China Mandarin getting assassinated by
an unknown assailant.
Things turn chaotic as one of their rubber storage houses is burned down, most likely
done by communist fighters.
All the workers evacuate, but seeing no more danger, Éliane bravely walks inside the factory
and restarts the machinery with Emile to encourage everyone to return to work.
After the situation gets under control, she "fires" her friend, Yvette, from the plantation,
primarily out of concern for her family's safety.
Unfortunately, Yvette becomes enraged, hastily storming off with her belongings and wishing
ill will to Éliane.
Meanwhile, Guy, the head of security, threatens his mole to continually infiltrate the communist
meetings or face prison.
Later, a commotion is heard on the streets as a suspected terrorist flees from captivity.
He is shot by the Inspector, though Camille becomes an unintended target.
Lieutenant Le Guen witnesses this and carries Camille away to an embroidery shop, where
he wipes away the blood smeared on her clothes.
She thanks her savior and falls in love with him at first sight.
At night, she vaguely confesses her feelings for another man to Éliane, who becomes shocked
learning she has fallen for her lover.
By Christmas, Éliane throws a party at their residence.
Camille hopes the Lieutenant will arrive and be her date, but he does not attend.
As the dinner begins, Emile plays music with his record player, inciting the guests to
dance.
Éliane notices Camille looking sorrowful, so she encourages her to dance with the steps
she taught her during her free time.
The pair soon amuse the crowd with their moves as Le Guen arrives late.
Camille attempts to rush over to him but is stopped by Guy to allow Éliane to privately
talk with the Lieutenant on the balcony.
Le Guen sadly informs Éliane he has been ordered to transfer to Haiphong to undertake
new duties.
However, he suspects her doing this due to her connections with high-ranking Navy officials.
She confesses that he must keep her away from Camille, believing he will eventually give
in to her.
The pair continually argue with each other until the Lieutenant slaps her in front of
his fellow officers and Camille.
Much to the young girl's disappointment, the Admiral escorts him from the party.
Later in the evening, Guy fetches Éliane in an opium den where she is trying to forget
the events that transpired at the party.
The following morning, Tanh's mother tries to console a sober Éliane, encouraging her
to forget about Le Guen.
She hopes to have Camille and her son married immediately, despite the resentment the young
girl now feels for Éliane.
Later she finds out that the Lieutenant was sent to the notorious Dragon Island in Ha
Long Bay, a remote French military base in northern Indo-China, for his uncouth behavior
at the party.
He meets a colleague who has been staying on the island for a very long time and gets
a tour of the outpost.
Meanwhile, Éliane visits Camille at the palace on her wedding day, arranged by the groom's
family.
The young bride has slowly accepted her fate, though she confesses she dreams of achieving
more outside royalty.
Though the wedding binds the couple, Camille is allowed by Tanh to travel away to search
for Lieutenant Le Guen up north.
Éliane discovers this, realizing no one can stop her as she is genuinely in love.
Camille ventures toward Dragon Island and sees a Vietnamese family escape the clutches
of a ruthless Frenchman.
She can come with them as they travel on foot going north.
The group arrives at the town center, struggling to get sustenance from the church's daily
rations.
Meanwhile, Tanh is reprimanded by his mother for losing Camille, but he insists that she
has made the right choice to free herself from oppression.
Eventually, Camille and her traveling companions arrive safely at Ha Long Bay, where they immerse
themselves with other Vietnamese laborers hauled in ships to be transported to the Dragon
Island outpost.
Lieutenant Le Guen arrives at the outpost the following day to check in with his superiors.
He becomes stunned to see Camille grouped with the workers, prompting him to save her.
However, the young girl grows hysterical when she sees the family she traveled with tortured
and murdered.
The French officers struggle to subdue her until Camille grabs a firearm and fatally
shoots one of them.
The guards take her away while Le Guen defies orders and tries to save her.
Later, the inspector, Castellani, embroiled in the chaos at the outpost, furiously reports
the matter to Guy and Éliane, branding Camille as a terrorist.
Guy offers to handle the case discreetly, leaving Éliane in a quandary on what to do.
Meanwhile, Camille awakens on a boat driven by Le Guen as he tries to safely transport
her across Ha Long Bay.
The pair spend some days adrift in the Gulf of Tonkin until they reach land and are rescued
by a Communist theater troupe.
Aware of what they have done, they offer the couple sanctuary in a temple located on a
remote mountainside.
As they rest, Camille advises the Lieutenant to seek pardon with Guy to absolve his actions.
He decides to stay behind to look after the young girl.
Four months pass, and the search for the couple has become futile.
Inspector Castellani implores Guy to call off the investigation.
However, the security head is hopeful they will still be found somewhere.
He later takes Éliane for a night out in the bar, where they meet with Yvette, who
is now a cabaret performer.
Éliane leaves abruptly after being reminded of Camille's absence.
She pleads with Guy to continue finding her as they walk the streets.
Unbeknownst to them, Camille had become pregnant with Jean-Baptiste's child.
Still, Tanh, now a high-ranking Communist officer, tells the couple they must vacate
the premises and sneak into China.
With the help of the theater troupe, Le Guen and Camille are smuggled out of the valley.
During an evening theatrical performance, Camille's water breaks, forcing the Lieutenant
to rush her away to a cottage and give birth with the help of a midwife.
Simultaneously, an insurrection occurs, as the townsfolk burn down the Mandarin's palace
to support the French government.
With these incidents rising, Guy convenes with his operatives to execute "Operate Molire,"
which aims to capture all theater groups in the north of Tonkin.
Meanwhile, after days of traveling, the couple and the trope are nearly five hours away from
the Yunnan Province of China.
They rest near the river, where Le Guen takes his newborn son to get baptized in the water
while Camille still sleeps.
After christening the baby Étienne Marie Loic, he is surprised to see several French
soldiers nearby.
A frantic Camille tries to call out to him.
Still, the theater leader stops her to prevent her capture, leaving her to escape with the
troupe.
At the same time, the authorities take her lover and baby away.
Despite this setback, Camille and Le Guen's story is told in tuồng performances by Vietnamese
actors, deeming them legends in the eyes of the locals while also bestowing Camille the
title "Red Princess."
Guy brings Éliane to see one of the performances one night, only to have the theater production
dismantled while he reveals Camille's current situation in Poulo-Condore prison.
Éliane becomes distraught when she is told there is no power high enough to get her pardoned.
The following day, she heads to a nunnery where an officer turns over custody of Étienne
to Éliane.
Elsewhere, Guy meets with the Navy Admiral to get Lieutenant Le Guen out of prison, but
he refuses to have him interrogated by police.
Instead, the Navy plans to court-martial him in Brest, France, to avoid the public outcry
likely arising from a trial in Indo-China.
Eventually, the Lieutenant agrees to talk if he will be allowed to see Etienne.
He later arrives at the estate, informing Éliane he has 24 hours to be with his son
before being taken to France.
She allows him to stay at her Saigon residence for the night.
The following morning, Éliane visits the residence but becomes horrified to see Le
Guen dead from a headshot.
She rushes to angrily castigate Guy, who she suspects arranged for the police to murder
him.
Still, Yvette tells her the Communists may have done it to silence Le Guen.
With no evidence to prove anything, the Lieutenant's death is deemed a suicide.
Éliane keeps her promise and raises Etienne on her own.
Five years pass, and the Popular Front comes to power, forcing Guy to relinquish his position.
Eventually, all political prisoners are released, including Camille.
Éliane reunites with her at the quarry.
However, the young woman refuses to return to her mother and son, instead choosing to
fight for Vietnam's independence.
Though heartbreaking, she reasons that French colonialism has ended and wishes Etienne a
better life in France.
Éliane breaks down as she leaves.
Days later, she sells her plantation and goes to Indochina while Emile stays behind and
re-employs her workers.
In 1954, Éliane was in Switzerland for the Geneva Conference with a grown Étienne as
she finished telling the story of her time in Indochina.
She tells him to meet Camille, now a Vietnamese Communist Party delegate, and reunite with
his birth mother.
However, the hotel is so crowded with people that he is unsure how Camille can find or
recognize him, leading him to forgo his search.
He declares Éliane his mother, making her pause momentarily to think.
A day later, North and South Vietnam are inaugurated, free from French influence after 15 tumultuous
years.