Indochina, 1951. Tonkin and northern Annam have been liberated from the French by the Vietminh. In the south, the French army and navy are fighting a vicious battle to keep the corrupt regime in Saigon in power. It began for Ruben with a dream about puzzling meanings of floating bamboo braids.
We meet him in Nha Trang, an Annamese port town where he debarkes from a French ocean liner, in search of a monastery that should be somewhere in...