1946.Indonesia has just become independent. Hundreds of volunteers from the Netherlands returned to Indonesia with the spirit of patriotism to maintain the nation's self-esteem. Two of them are Johan Knevel and Erik Verhagen, who were born in the Dutch East Indies and returned to the country with a mind full of wishful thinking and illusion. Johan dreams of the return of the "tempo of doeloe", the paradise of childhood, and Ninih, his nanny. But Erik then drowns in the waves and Johan is haunted by guilt. He then assumed the identity of Erik and went to Makassar, to his homeland. Because Erik was a communist, the Dutch army hunted him down. This historical and psychological romance storytelling about the loss of the past and identity is conveyed with an overview of Rampokan, the tradition of fighting tigers in Java. It will be a disaster for the country if the tiger, the symbol of evil and the Dutch colonizers, can escape.