Indo-China, 1931. Confronted by the corruption of the land register agents who sold her a rice plantation that is flooded each year by sea water, destroying their crops, Mrs. Dufresne, the widow of a French civil servant, comes up with an ambitious project: to set up a seawall to keep the salt water out. To finance the construction, the former teacher encourages her 16-year-old daughter, Suzanne, to attract the son of a wealthy Chinese businessman.