Born to royalty in South Vietnam on August 22, 1963, Tuan is shielded from the war by his family’s wealth and privilege. During the fall of Saigon, in 1975, Tuan’s life transitions from one of wealth and privilege to one of poverty and oppression under the Communist regime. He survives a failed escape attempt in which he witnesses the death of his closest friend, but is then imprisoned for a year in a Communist reeducation camp.

Using clay, made from the floor of his prison cell, Tuan sculpts likenesses of his fellow prisoners and of his captors as a way of keeping a grip on sanity during this trying time. Eventually, Tuan succeeds in leaving Vietnam, via an arduous two-month trek through the jungles of Southeast Asia to Cambodia where he labours for many more months to pay for passage to Thailand and eventually the Philippines. At the end of this journey, Tuan looks for ways to gain the freedom of the United States.

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