The Lover

In 1930s French Indochina, a 15-year-old French girl lives with her family in poverty in a rural area. Her mother, widowed and depressed, is a schoolteacher who lost all her savings in a failed agricultural venture after being swindled by the authorities. The older brother, Pierre, is an opium addict and violent, while the younger brother, Paul, has mental health issues. The girl, studious and solitary, dreams of becoming a writer.

On her return to Saigon after the school holidays, aboard a ferry crossing the Mekong River, the girl meets a 32-year-old Chinese man, the son of a wealthy property magnate. On the ferry's railing, the two have an awkward conversation, primarily due to the man's shyness in approaching a French caucasian female. Having just returned from Paris, where he studied economics, he is captivated by the young female and offers her a lift to the city in his luxurious car. A silent connection and emotional tension begin to build between them as they speak little during the journey but hold hands. During this time, the girl claims to be 17.

The following day, the man waits for her outside the girl's boarding school and takes her to a room he rents in the Chinese quarter for his love affairs, where they have their first sexual encounter, and the girl loses her virginity. This marks the beginning of a secret relationship, consisting of passionate daily meetings, set against a backdrop of deep cultural, social, and racial barriers. The man falls deeply in love with the girl, despite her insistence that she does not want to be loved.

When the girl's family discovers the relationship, they initially react with anger but ultimately tolerate it, taking advantage of the gifts and money the man provides. The tension reaches a climax in a dramatic episode where the man, deeply wounded by the hostility of her family and overwhelmed by the circumstances, physically attacks her. The relationship deteriorates irreparably, also due to familial pressures: the man's father vehemently opposes the idea of his son marrying a French caucasian female and insists that he enter into an arranged marriage with an asian heiress, as was agreed many years earlier, to consolidate the families' business interests.

Later, the girl returns to France. On leaving, aboard the ship, the girl realises the depth of the feelings she had for the man now far away, and bursts into tears.

Many decades later, the protagonist, now a successful writer, receives a phone call from her former lover, who is visiting France with his wife. The man confesses that he has never stopped loving her and that he will continue to love her until his death.