When Philip was a very young boy, his mother set him on a mythic course in life, to grow up in exile as a circus performer touring the backwaters of Viet Nam, to slay his evil father, and to win a fantastic inheritance. However, as he studies his legacy with the help of the stoic manager Vang Ky, falls in love with Vang's niece, and contemplates the odd soliloquies of an ancient, disfigured war veteran, he begins to perceive that his life and mission are not what they appear.