Plot
The widowed Eurasian doctor Han Suyin (Jones) falls in love with the married-but-separated American correspondent Mark Elliott (Holden) in Hong Kong, during the period of China's Civil War in the late 1940s. Although they briefly find happiness together, she is ostracized by the greater Chinese community. After losing her position at the hospital, Suyin and her adopted daughter go to live with a friend while Mark is on an assignment during the Korean War. They write to each other constantly.
However on the same day that Suyin receives a letter from Mark, another friend drops by with a newspaper which says that he has been killed by an aircraft bomb. Distraught, Suyin climbs the hill to the tree where they said their last goodbyes, half hoping to see him there again. When she realizes that he is truly gone, she falls to her knees sobbing. In the final scene, a butterfly, similar to the one seen on Elliot's typewriter while at the front, lands on the tree in front of Suyin. She composes herself and walks away.
Read more about this topic: Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (film)
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
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““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
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