The story tells of a girl named Lu Lee (Heep Thi Lo), who lives in a small Vietnamese village that is under threat when the war breaks out. They start with horror as a fighter for freedom, where things start to differ with a young mother, a whore at one time, and an American wife. It is that story that expresses the similarity and difference between cultures in wars.
Heaven and Earth has the epic scope one would expect from a film of this magnitude, but it lacks much of the narrative strength of Stone's first two Vietnamese tales.
This is the first time [Stone] has tried to place himself inside a woman's imagination, and that he succeeds so well is due partly...to an extraordinary performance by Hiep Thi Le in the leading role.