Thi is a precocious ten-year-old girl whose world begins to expand through glimpsing new aspects of womanhood. It tentatively begins with her possession of a book containing nude paintings by the Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka, and deepens through her brief friendship with Ngoc, a bar girl at a dance club who is a new lodger in the family home. Sensuous and often dressed sexily and seen with men, she offers a different type of female persona from Thi’s doting and conservative mother.


A universal coming-of-age story becomes unique through how delicately depicted Thi’s explorations are while the brief sights and sounds of Ho Chi Minh city breathe considerable life into the atmosphere.