On his way to a rural wedding, a government minister is injured when his car collides with a slow-going wagon. At the accident site, medics crowd around: "Which one's the minister?" "He's supposed to have a nice face." "They all look nice." "Take the one in the suit." A county vs. county rivalry ensues for the honor of caring for such an important personage (and the favor curried thereby) in this delightful and biting satire on bureaucracy and sycophancy that is one of the first examples of liberalization in Vietnamese film. "The patient could die of paperwork," a young medic complains as arrangements are made (or not made) to fly a surgeon in, or the patient out, or neither...At one point, his fate lies in the hands of the post office. Oddly, the closer the patient gets to death the funnier this dry farce becomes. The clinic director (a specialist in the women in town) has one opinion, his board of directors another; a local surgeon and his wife dream of a new life based on the favors they will rack up if he performs the operation. Meanwhile, the bride languishes, waiting to be fetched by her groom, and the young boy whose bull-drawn cart caused the accident happily plays his flute, untouched by the insanity around him.