In steamy, corruption-ridden Manila, at the height of Ferdinand Marcos' brutal regime, two unlikely young lovers come together: Rue Caldwell, the wife of an American counter-insurgency specialist and Doming Aquinaldo, a Filipino dissident working under a secret identity as chauffeur for Rue's husband. Doming is honor-bound to avenge his father's murder, but resists fighting brutality with more violence, choosing instead to be a conduit for information. Rue, who avoids acknowledging the suffering that is veiled by her privileged lifestyle, represents all that Doming despises. However, the more she sees, the more she realizes that her husband and country are on the wrong side in the Philippines' conflict.

As the violence in the country escalates, Rue and Doming find refuge in each other through their loneliness, their awakening conscience and their common experience of betrayal and exile.