In the mountains of Java during World War II. In 1942, Kanemoto (Johnny Okura), a Korean soldier, rapes De Jong, a male Dutch soldier, at the Japanese POW camp in Rebaksembata on the island of Java under Japanese rule. The POW who is captured, John Lawrence (Tom Conti), a British Army lieutenant colonel who speaks Japanese, forms a strange friendship with the rough Sergeant Hara (Beat Takeshi), who was assigned to handle the case together with Kanemoto. Meanwhile, Hala's boss and warden, Army Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto), takes charge of Army Major Jack Celiaz (David Bowie), who was captured after paratrooping behind Japanese troops and attacking a convoy, and is fascinated by his defiant attitude. At the same time, he clashes with Hicksley (Jack Thompson), a prideful Air Force colonel and prisoner of war chief, over the handling of the Kanemoto and De Young cases and information about the captives. Amidst the differences between Eastern and Western religious, moral, and organizational theories, a Christmas gift delivered from fate awaits each of them. ......