January 24th, 2001. Peace has only been restored since 1989 and Hanoï is celebrating the Têt Festival, the new lunar year, in front of the Tortoise Pagoda. When the Year of the Dragon turns into the Year of the Snake, many Vietnamese who fled their country during the war return to their homeland. Among them are Mei Chen Chalais and her mother, who are reunited with their next of kin near Hanoï after a separation of almost 45 years. In 1954, as a very young girl, Mei Chen was saved from death by her mother during fighting between the French army and the Vietminh. We follow Mei Chen and her mother as they rediscover their roots in the craftsman's district of Hanoï and in the village where the father of Mei Chen, whom she never knew, was born. Mei Chen Chalais retraces the footsteps of her late father as she attends rites for the cult of her ancestor and ancient ceremonials, and when, in pilgrimage, she climbs the Perfumed Mount to the pagoda. Through her experiences, one woman's story takes on universal interest.