In early 1970 a small plane goes down in the Cambodian jungle, en route to Angkor Wat. The plane is carrying its American pilot, a US businessman and his wife, their English guide and a Cambodian 'old hand', a Frenchman.

The helplessly stranded Westerners are found by local peasants and taken to their village. Cut off from the outside, they find an enchanting Buddhist world, full of laughter and festivals. As the group adjust to the lotus-eating culture, life presents excitement, pleasure - even love. But a darker presence threatens to destroy their paradise. The Vietnam war is spilling across Cambodia's borders, and an insurgency is on the rise that will become the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia must change, but in whose image?