Plot

In August 1945, at the tail end of WW2, a young GI, a Chinese language expert, is flown over the roof of the world into China. His name is Sidney Rittenberg. Rittenberg is an idealist. On his discharge from the army, he decides to stay on. It's the start of a strange and dangerous adventure. He makes contact with some young Chinese - idealists like himself -- who are working for the revolutionary leader, Mao Zedong and against the military dictatorship of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. One of these young revolutionaries is a beautiful girl called Yulin. As Civil War looms, Rittenberg gets more and more deeply committed. American foreign policy is ostensibly to broker a peace between Mao and Chiang. In reality, America is backing Chiang's utterly corrupt regime in the belief that the Generalissimo is bound to win a Civil War. But Mao is also looking West, towards America. Rittenberg becomes directly involved in these secret overtures. He dreams of becoming a bridge between America a new China. But nobody in Washington is really listening. In scenes with General Marshall and President Truman we see how America stumbled yet again into a disastrous foreign policy blunder. Rittenberg treks north, to Mao's base in Yan'an. He meets Mao. Mao gives him a job. He also hooks up again with Yulin. They fall in love. They marry. Civil War erupts. Rittenberg and Yulin are with Mao as he inflicts defeat after defeat on Chiang's forces. America has backed the wrong horse. As Mao's army claims victory and the Generalissimo flees the country, Rittenberg's dream is still alive. He is ordered to Beijing. He believes that this is his moment. It's a cruel deception. After America had ignored Mao's overtures, the Chinese saw no choice but to renew their old alliance with the Russians. On orders from Moscow, Rittenberg is arrested as an American spy. He experiences for himself the dark and deadly side of the movement to which he has pledged his full allegiance: the nightmare of the Chinese Communist penal system. On Stalin's death, in 1953, Rittenberg is released. He stays in China. He stays with Yulin. All this is true. It is historical fact. And Sidney Rittenberg is still going strong, at 93 - a living witness to the revolution that changed the world and that we see, in this movie, for the first time, from a completely fresh perspective.