Hương makes an offering for her late grandmother, Diệu Lan, at an ancestral altar. Recalling her grandmother’s teaching that ancestors watch over their descendants, Hương communes with Diệu Lan, who reminds her granddaughter that the tragic scope of Vietnamese history can only be understood from a distance.

Back in November 1972, during the height of the Vietnam War, Diệu Lan walks 12-year-old Hương to school through the ravaged streets of Hanoi. They have not heard from Hương’s parents, Diệu Lan’s daughter Ngọc and her husband Hoàng, in some time. Hoàng and Ngọc’s brothers Đạt, Thuận, and Sáng are on the frontlines in South Vietnam, and Ngọc, a doctor, has gone in search of her husband, hoping to provide wartime medical services as well. An American air raid is announced, and Hương and her grandmother hide in a flooded shelter beneath a school. They are injured and fear death but survive.

After the raid, they return home and are grateful to find their house undamaged, but soon the government orders an evacuation. They travel 61 kilometers (approximately 38 miles) west to the mountain town of Hòa Bình to take refuge. One day, an American pilot crashes nearby.