The Promise is about a love triangle that develops between Mikael (Isaac), an Armenian medical student, Chris (Bale), a Paris-based American journalist, and Ana (Le Bon), an Armenian-born woman raised in France, immediately before the Armenian Genocide. The film was a box office bomb, grossing just $8 million against its $90 million budget, although the studio noted the main purpose of the film was to bring attention to the story, not make money.[3][1]