Red Dust 1932 Conditions are spartan on Dennis Carsons Indochina rubber plantation during a dusty dry monsoon The latest boat upriver brings Carson an unwelcome guest Vantine, a floozy from Saigon, hoping to evade the police by a stay upcountry But Carson, initially uninterested, soon succumbs to Vantines ostentatious charms until the arrival of surveyor Gary Willis, ill with malaria, and his refined but sensuous wife Barbara Now the rains begin, and passion flows like water