Uses archive footage, recently released documents and interviews with war veterans to discuss the Karen tribe of Burma's role in fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War. After the war the Allies rejected Karen's demands for independence. Veterans who fought with the Karen in the war returned to Burma to help their old friends and by 1949 aided and trained by elite British forces they had overrrun nearly all of Burma. They were prevented from victory by British intelligence cutting supply lines and the consequences of this defeat which has been a constant state of civil war against the Burmese government are explored in the documentary.