The Story

 

           Kim, an innocent 17-year-old Vietnamese girl, is forced to become a prostitute, in Saigon, after she is forced out of her village during the Vietnam War. On her first night The engineer hold a contest, between all the other Bar girls, to compete for the title miss Saigon. Gigi another Bar Girl wins the contest, gets crowned Miss Saigon and is won by marine for the night in the raffle. When Gigi ask the marine to take her to America he gets annoyed.

 

           Meanwhile Chris a marine in the bar has spotted Kim and likes the look of her. John, Chris’s best friend decides to buy Kim for Chris even though Chris is against the idea of prostitute’s. After trying to get out of sleeping with Kim Chris give's in and goes to Kim’s bedroom.

The next morning Chris decides that he’s fallen madly in love with Kim and can’t leave Vietnam with the memory of her haunting him so he asks Kim her if she will come and live with him. Kim see's that Chris is all she has wished for, someone that will protect her and keep her safe, falls in love with him and says yes.

    The other girls, Kim and Chris hold a wedding ceremony. Although it is not a real wedding in Kim’s eyes they are married. Chris has promise to marry her and in to kim that was all that mattered. They asked for the forgiveness of Kim’s parents, her farther betrothed her to a man she didn’t love before him and her mother were killed.

          Thuy, The man Kim was promise to, enters and disrupts the ceremony he tell's Kim she's his and threatens to kill her if she doesn't come with him. She says she loves Chris and will not go with him he leaves telling her "Saigon will fall and so will your G.I." Chris tells her that he’s going to America and taking her with him.

 

Before they get the chance Chris and Kim get split up when Chris gets forced in to a helicopter with the other marine’s and taking back to America while Kim is left in Vietnam surrounded by war unaware she’s pregnant.

Three years later

            After going crazy specking to no one for a year Chris decides to get on with his life and has settled down with a new wife Ellen.

             In Vietnam Kim, who is determined that Chris will come back for her is living in poverty and hiding with her and Chris’s son Tam. He has to sleep hidden behind a curtain and he can’t show his  face because people will know he’s a bui-doi (child of the american enemy). 

            Thuy Returns after the engineer has told where Kim lives. He tell Kim to come with him once more but she refuses again saying she loves Chris and believes he’ll come back for her. Thuy Refuses to accept this so Kim shows him Tam saying "now you see why I must tell you no." Thuy is enraged and says that her child can not live, gets his knife and threatens to kill the child Kim terrified for the life of her child grabs the gun Chris left behind and kills Thuy. Kim grabs Tam and flees hopeing to get to Chris in America.

 

            Kim and Tam burst in on the Engineer and tell him what has happened to Thuy, asking him for help to leave the country. On discovering that Tam is the son of a marine, The Engineer identifies him as a root for freedom for them all. He tells Kim to pretend he is her brother and they will get a visa that way. They join the boat people and go to Bangkok where they hope to get a visa.

 

            In America John is now working for an agency that deals with the problems of children born to Vietnamese women with absent American fathers (bui-doi children), and is addressing a conference in Atlanta attended by Chris and Ellen. After his address, John tells Chris his staff in Bangkok have found Kim alive and working there. He also tells Chris of the child he has fathered. John Chris and Ellen travel to Bangkok there John finds Kim working there as a bargirl, and tells her Chris is with him in Bangkok. On seeing Tam and hearing of Kim's undying love for Chris, John is unable to tell her that Chris is already married, and can only promise to send him to see her.

           Kim is confronted by Thuy's ghost, who reminds her not only of her guilt but draws her into memories which continually haunt her of the devastating fall of Saigon when she and Chris separated, and, with a huge crowd of Vietnamese pushing at the Embassy gates, she failed to get past.

 

          The Engineer, who does not trust Chris or John, finds the address of the hotel where they are staying, and Kim runs to find Chris. Meanwhile, Chris and John are travelling through the city to find her. When Kim reaches the hotel she is finds Ellen. On learning the truth, Kim is distraught and urges Ellen to take Tam back to America with her, but she refuses. After Kim leaves, Ellen determines to fight for Chris. On Chris and John's return, Ellen tells them what has happened, and despite Kim's wish to see Chris alone, they decide to go together and persuade her to stay in Bangkok where they will support her and the child.

Kim returns to the club and tells the Engineer that Chris will arrive later that evening to take them all to America. The Engineer finally believes his dreams will come true, and fantasises about his inevitable success in manipulating the American Dream to his own ends.

          Meanwhile, Kim has decided to sacrifice her own life so that her son can have a future in America with his father, as she previously promised him. Kim says her last goodbye to her son As Chris arrives with Ellen and John, the Engineer picks up Tam and takes him out side to see his farther. Kim distraught and crying grabs the gun and disappears behind the curtain on her bed. A gunshot rings out and her body falls to the floor. Chris runs in and holds Kim in his arms. He begs her not to die but she just asks him to hold her one last time. As she repeats Chris's words from three years ago, “how in one night have we come so far” her body becomes lifeless. Chris sobs over her as the curtains fall for one last time.