In 1933, Jessie Lesage arrives in Vietnam with her French husband, Victor, an heir to the Michelin rubber fortune. Jessie is certain the vast plantations near Saigon are the key to the family's prosperity - and to ensuring that her past in America stays buried. On her first night in Hanoi, Jessie meets expat Marcelle de Fabry, who proves to be an exuberant guide to colonial life. But Marcelle's joie de vivre masks a secret desire to put the colony back in the hands of its people. Amidst sun-drenched days and champagne-soaked nights, a fiery political struggle builds, and Jessie soon begins to wonder whether her new friendship is nothing but a house of cards.