chookdee

Leo and Ellen are a successful New York couple, totally immersed in their work. Leo is the creator of a booming website, and has stumbled into a world of money and big decisions. He has to board a business flight to Thailand in order to sign a contract. What ensues in the next few days is a critique on the social dilemmas that result from globalization.

Ellen is a dedicated emergency surgeon who devotes her long shifts to saving lives. During her work, she becomes attached to a dying boy who had been stabbed in the stomach by his mother. Leo and Ellen have an eight-year-old daughter named Jackie. Due to her parents' lack of presence in the household, she spends most of her time with her Filipino nanny Gloria, who introduces the girl to her Filipino culture and reads about Jackie's favorite subject, astronomy. Even with the little time that Ellen has for her, Jackie often prefers to be with Gloria, which provokes jealousy on Ellen's part.

Gloria has two children of her own, young boys staying in the Philippines with their grandmother. The older boy, Salvador, who misses his mother dearly, makes frequent phonecalls to her and begs her to come home. Salvador tries to find a job so that Gloria does not have to work abroad. One night while on his way home from work, Salvador is lured and molested by a pedophile. Next morning he is found unconscious under a bridge, and is rushed to the hospital. Gloria is informed of this incident and quits her job right away to return to her country.

In Thailand, Leo finds out that his colleague has to negotiate additionally, which buys time for him to explore the country. Leo's trip so far has been uneventful. At a club, Leo meets a prostitute named Cookie, and pays her to not have sex with any client that evening. Later on Leo reluctantly has a romantic fling with the girl, but he regrets it afterwards. He has his colleague accept the terms offered, so that he can finish the work and return to his family in the US as soon as possible. We find out at the end that Cookie is a working class single mother who is away from her baby girl.