Yeong-shin, the son of Shin-ho and Hye-yeong, cannot stop thinking about his mother who left him in his father's care while she went to work in Japan. Meanwhile, his father's business is failing and he finds it increasingly difficult to support his family.

Hye-yeong reclaims her son from the boy's father and moves back to Seoul where she starts a business with money that she believes came from her brother. It is, in fact, from Shin-ho--her ex-lover. Shin-ho is driven to backruptcy because of his generousity and his wife pleads with Hye-yeong to leave Seoul for the sake of her husband's piece of mind.

Hye-yeong had no idea that her lover, Shin-ho, was a married man until Shin-ho's wife and children arrive in town. She leaves him but reappears 8 years later asking him to take responsibilty for their child.