Indonesia declared independence on August 17, 1945 Driven from the Dutch East Indies when the Japanese landed in 1942, The Netherlands refuses to recognize this declaration and sets out to recover their colony. The Dutch government decides to send a contingent to fight those it calls "terrorists". Among them, Johan Knevel, who was born "in the indies", hopes to regain the lost paradise of his childhood. He is faced with the reality of a war in which no one's hands are clean.