Inspired by his father, Rangoon University student Ko Ko Lay helps organize an uprising that would change the course of Burma’s history. Nearly succeeding in transforming a brutal military regime to a complete democracy, instead the movement is quashed in a bloody crackdown. Ko Ko and his new fiancée, Mimi, must face the repercussions of the failed uprising. Ko Ko travels to the border with ten thousand other students to form an army, Mimi stays home to take care of her family. Little do they know that in a few short years they will be living in exile across the Pacific Ocean for the next 20 years.