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Indochine depicts Vietnam during the tumultuous period of French occupation, preceding the Vietnam War. The film contrasts the perspectives of the French nobles and the subjugated Vietnamese. The main character, Camille, experiences both sides first-hand, and by movie's end makes the decision to give up her life for the cause of Vietnamese independence.

The film takes the side of the Vietnemese, which is made clear through the three main story lines of Jean-Baptiste (a French naval officer), Eliane (a French rubber plantation owner), and Camille (Eliane's adopted Vietnamese daughter). Jean-Baptiste experiences a slow transition to the Vietnamese cause, beginning with the guilt following his order of burning the boat of an old man and his son at sea, and ending with witnessing the inhumane treatment of the Vietnamese populace. Eliane also experiences a transition. In the beginning of the movie, we witness her punishing one of her workers who had tried to flee. But by the end of the film, in light of her daughter's vow to fight for the independence of Vietnam, she too becomes a supporter for the cause. Camille's transition occurs as she is fleeing across country, in the hopes to reunite with Jean Baptiste, and discovers the cruelty in which many Vietnamese were subject to.

One of the main ideas the film propagates is an ideal of Vietnamese unity. The village in which Eliane operates is incredibly tight nit, as is referenced when Jean-Baptiste visits in the attempt to find the boy who's boat he had burned. Eliane tells him, "They won't tell you a thing," attesting to the strong sense of community the villagers feel. Another instance occurs during the hunt for Camille and Jean-Baptiste, when a group of women, when asked if they had seen a young Vietnamese woman with a French soldier, all respond by pointing in different directions.