Saigon

1974.

The Vietnam War has been raging for nearly 20 years.

The North Vietnamese Army has been growing stronger,

ever since American troops left a year earlier.

But here, in a little bar and restaurant not far from the French embassy,

that front seems far away.

It's called Mae Kim. The owner is a dark-haired

Chinese-born woman named Lou T. Vang. She's a war widow, with three adult sons and one teenage

daughter. Everyone calls her Kim. Across the street from Kim's bar is the Vietnamese headquarters

of Caltechs, an American oil company.

One of Kim's regulars is an American expatriate who works for Caltex, a U.S. military veteran from Texas named William Harris.

Kim and Bill hit it off. They get married, but they've barely started their new lives together in April

1975, when the Viet Cong and People's Armies of Vietnam begin their final assault on the

South Vietnamese capital. Caltex pulls Bill out of the country, sending him to a hotel in

Singapore in the last days of April. But not before the newlyweds rushed to the American

Embassy, where Bill signs an affidavit saying he's married to Kim and that he will care for her

in the United States. Bill flees, leaving Kim and her teenage daughter Lone behind. The next day, Saigon falls.

Kim and Lone hurry back to the U.S. Embassy,

where American helicopters are landing on the embassy's roof

to evacuate people to safety.

But the line is long.

...