Thomas Fowler is an English journalist stationed in Vietnam during the French Colonial era. In his apartment, he waits for an American man named Alden Pyle, who is running late. After midnight, Fowler becomes frustrated and wanders out into the street. There, he meets his Vietnamese ex-mistress, Phuong, who has recently broken up with him and begun a relationship with Pyle. He invites her to wait for Pyle in his apartment. She accepts and, while inside, prepares Fowler’s opium pipe. When Fowler quizzes her about her relationship with Pyle, she is hesitant to answer. Pyle does not smoke opium, Fowler notes, which contradicts a traditional Vietnamese superstition that “a lover who smoked [opium] would always return” (6). As Fowler smokes the pipe, he tries to forget about Pyle. Phuong declines when he invites her to stay with him. Eventually, Fowler hears a knock on the door. Outside is a police officer, who escorts Fowler to the local French Investigation Bureau. Fowler goes without question since he knows that the police are not hesitant to use force during a time of war.

Phuong goes with Fowler to the station.