Armed with little more than a primer and a sense of adventure, Victorian schoolteacher Anna Leonowens (Jodie Foster) arrives in Siam to educate the sovereign's son, soon to realise that she's charged with all 58 of his children and a handful of wives. Although his people revere him as a god, she considers King Mongkut (Chow Yun Fat) uncivilized. On the other hand, he regards the young widow as impertinent. In time, their inflexibility softens into mutual respect -- and something more -- as East and West come to understand each other in the epic saga.