In this runup to war in Vietnam and "Spell of the Lotus", young sisters Ahn Liên and Thị Kim emerge from the chaos of WWII and the First Indochina War, with a hopeful future in Saigon. It's a city finally free of European colonialists with a new government and a strong ally to ward-off the communist threat from Hanoi. However, autocratic rule and repression are on the rise almost immediately, endangering their father, a scholar and voice of the loyal opposition to the Saigon government. Liên is recruited to attend university in the U.S. for what she believes is an American educational program. Kim is recruited to be a spy inside the Presidential Palace in Saigon by the same agent who recruited her sister. Leading parallel lives in separate governments, and handled by the same agent, they become entangled in events that set the stage for the assassination of two presidents and escalation of the Vietnam War.