After decades of military rule, Burma has finally held its first presidential election. Many Burmese living abroad believe that peace and prosperity will soon soon follow, including Wang Xing-Hong who is living as an immigrant laborer in Taiwan and saves his money so he can return home. When Xing-hong arrives, he feels like a stranger in a foreign land but is determined to stay and make his life in Burma.

Return to Burma

Arranged by a smuggling syndicate, A-Hong and his young teen sister along with a group of Burmese youngsters sneak across the Myanmar/Thailand border and arrive in a remote town called Dagudi in Northern Thailand. A-Hong's sister is taken away by the gangs as her mother has sold her to them. A-Hong goes to Bangkok and works under a tour guide, a wildcatter from Myanmar who has lived in Thailand illegally for years.

Poor Folk

A young farmer and his father are barely able to survive on their meagre corn harvest and so they make their way down from the mountains to the village to borrow money from their relatives working in jade mines or on opium plantations. But missing paperwork, deceit and corruption have left them impoverished too. Finally, the father pawns his cow for a moped so that his son can earn a living as a taxi driver. His first customer is Sanmei, who has returned to Myanmar to bury her grandfather. She decides not to go back to China and to get out of an arranged marriage in order to begin a new life with her son in her old country. When Sanmei accepts a job as a drug runner she persuades the young farmer to be her driver.