Mercedes is a young girl who enjoys flirting with boys and partying, but when the war starts, she enlists as a nurse and is assigned to an emergency hospital. When the Japanese arrive, she narrowly escapes sexual assault and physical violence by hiding under a bed, and she later escapes in an ambulance. Mercedes finds her way to an old friend working in a different hospital, but after a short conversation, she is gone once more. She then finds herself working for Mr. Kajima, helping out at his shop and his house for a miserably low wage. He offers to raise the salary if she provides sexual favors, at which point Mercedes furiously leaves. Her luck turns later as she encounters a Russian named Boris, who is willing to marry her and help her across the border into Free China, a feat that he can accomplish due to his nationality - the Japanese are letting the Russians pass for fear of angering the Soviet diplomats. Mercedes agrees and packs her bags. During this time, an Indian man named Mr. Chowda falls in love with her, but when she reveals that she's engaged to Boris, Chowda angrily reports to the Japanese, saying that both Boris and Mercedes are spies. She is arrested, but treated relatively well because of her beauty and apparent foolishness. When she is released, she knows that all her chances of escape are gone now: Boris, angry at her for 'entertaining' the attentions of Chowda, left by himself for Free China with no intention of coming back for her. At last Mercedes returns to her friend, and mentions the frightening invasion of the Japanese, when she was still a nurse at that emergency hospital. In trying to escape, she implies that she could have left it all behind - and on that night, Mercedes reveals that 'there was no escaping' those men. Her friend seems to realize that perhaps Mercedes did not really escape assault, and assures her that if she doesn't think about it, then it did not really happen.