The Plot

       Miss Saigon opens in April of 1975, the height of the Vietnam war, in a seedy nightclub/brothel called Dreamland in Saigon. We see the girls there begin to prepare for the evening, the club owner/their pimp, the Engineer, enters with a new girl: Kim, a 17 year old virgin from the countryside. The Engineer holds a contest where patrons of Dreamland vote on a girl to be crowned "Miss Saigon," who will be raffled off. The girls all want to be Miss Saigon, because the club is frequented by US Marines, and each girl hopes for one of the soldiers to take her back to America. The Engineer himself has hopes of gaining a visa to get out of Vietnam; he wants to be an American entrepreneur. 

     Though a girl named Gigi wins Miss Saigon, the soldier who wins her is cruel and leaves her to reflect on her life, and dreams. We then go back to Kim, who in a wedding dress has caught the eye of Chris, a disillusioned American GI. His friend  John purchases Kim for Chris, who beds her despite some misgivings. Afterwards, he's ashamed, and sad because he's met her just before he leaves Vietnam. 

       When Kim wakes, he tries to pay her, but she refuses his money and tells him her backstory: her family and village were destroyed, and she has no need for his pity. He is touched, and proposes that they marry. She agrees enthusiastically, and Chris telephones John, who works at the embassy. John argues that the Viet Cong are due to take over the city any day, but agrees to get Kim's papers through. Chris then "negotiates" to buy Kim from the Engineer by threatening him at gunpoint. 

     When he returns, the girls from Dreamland hold a party for Kim, and sing a wedding song. The "wedding" is interrupted when Thuy, Kim's cousin who belongs to the Viet Cong, enters. He was betrothed to Kim as a child, and ends up gun to gun with Chris over Kim. Kim says that since her parents are dead, she's no longer bound to him, and Thuy leaves cursing them all. After everyone else leaves, Kim and Chris share a tender moment where they dance together.

       The final notes of their duet segue into a Communist parade that is taking place three years later in 1978. Saigon has been overtaken by the North Vietnamese, and the Americans have all pulled out. Thuy, now a high ranking officer of the Viet Cong, tracks down the Engineer, who was being held in a work camp, and has him track Kim down. We find Kim living in squalor, and she sings a song of devotion to Chris. In America, Chris wakes from a nightmare screaming Kim's name, and his American wife Ellen sings she wishes he would be more open with him.

       The Engineer enters with Thuy, who is once again rebuffed by Kim. He threatens to have her dragged to a work camp, and to explain to him why she won't marry him, she reveals her son, Tam, Chris's son. Thuy says that Tam is an abomination and an enemy and says he must die. Kim pulls out a gun (given to her by Chris), and says that she'll shoot Thuy if he touches her child. Not believing her, Thuy tries to stab Tam, prompting Kim to shoot him, and she flees with Tam through the parade. Meanwhile, the Engineer is packing his things to leave Saigon. Kim comes to him for help, and when he learns she had a son with an American, he makes plans for them to go to Bangkok, hoping to impersonate Kim's brother and use Tam as leverage to get into the US. Alone with her son, Kim sings that she'd give her life for him.

     Act 2 opens on John, who is giving a presentation on Bui-Doi, a name used to describe children conceived during the war. He works for an organization that tires to reunite these children with their American fathers. Shortly afterwards Chris enters and John informs him that he has news on Kim, who Chris has been agonizing over. He says that he's found her, and that she has a son. Chris breaks the news to Ellen, and the scene shifts to Bangkok, where the Engineer works as a promoter for a cheap nightclub where Kim is a bargirl. 

     John enters and tells them that Chris is in Bangkok, but before he can explain his marriage, he is cut off by Kim, who's overjoyed thinking that Chris has come to take them to America. John can't bring himself to tell her about Ellen, and departs, saying he'll bring Chris to her. The engineer has his doubts that Chris will actually come for them and sets off to find Chris himself.

       Kim has a nightmare where the ghost of Thuy tells her that she's guilty of murder and that Chris won't come for her. In her dream she recalls the night Saigon fell and she was separated from Chris. He had left her in their hotel room (leaving the gun we see her shoot Thuy with for protection) to go process her emigration papers when the Viet Cong descended upon the city. Chris is stuck at the embassy as the Americans evacuate, and the ambassador orders that no more Vietnamese be allowed in. 

     Kim is stuck in the throngs of people trying to force their way into the embassy, but can't get in, just as Chris can't get out. The ambassador refuses to leave until everyone else has boarded, prompting John to physically force Chris onto the helicopter. As he flies away, Kim vows her love for him, and the Engineer rouses her from the dream and tells her where Chris is. She leaves Tam with him and sets off.

       When Kim arrives at the hotel, Ellen is the only one there. She mistakes Kim for the maid, just as Kim mistakes her for John's wife. Ellen calmly explains the situation to Kim, who falls into hysterics. Ellen is adamant that her and Chris will support Tam, however she says they aren't willing to separate him from Kim. Kim angrily replies that if Chris feels that way, he must tell her herself, and she storms out. Alone, Ellen decides that while she is sympathetic to Kim, she too is in love with Chris, and is determined to keep him. 

When Chris and John return, Ellen recounts the events to them, and offers Chris an ultimatum: her, or me? Chris chooses Ellen, and Ellen says that she'd be willing to take Tam, but not Kim, for she knows that Chris still loves her. They decide to leave Tam and Kim in Thailand, but support them from America, despite John's warning that Kim won't be satisfied with that.

       They tell this to Kim, who reluctantly agrees to the deal, but tells them to come back to her home that night to meet Tam. Kim tells the Engineer that Chris has agreed to take them to America. The Engineer then has an elaborate fantasy about what his life in America will be like. 

     Kim pulls Tam aside and tells him to look at her face and to remember it. When Chris, Ellen and John arrive, the Engineer takes Tam outside to meet them. While alone in the room, Kim takes her gun and shoots herself. Chris enters, horrified, and him and Kim share one final kiss before she dies.

Notes:

• Kim and Chris spent approximately two weeks living together, as mentioned during "The Confrontation."

• "Bui Doi" goes into more depth about it, but there was intense discrimination against the children of American soldiers in South-East Asia. The Engineer faced it, and Kim didn't want her son to face it, hence her insistence he go to America.

• Bankok is in Thailand.

• After Saigon fell, it was renamed Ho-Chi-Minh City, a name that remains to this day.