A family one day discovers that they’ve fallen into a web of
indiscretion. A sixty-year-old grandmother finally discovers meaning in
her life through an affair with her elementary school sweetheart. But
instead of condemnation, the daughter-in-law silently applauds her
mother-in-law’s confessions of “folly.” The husband presents himself as a
model citizen-attorney, but in fact he’s a born playboy who untiringly
focuses his energy on wooing women despite his love and devotion to his
family. The wife meanwhile observes her spouse’s hypocrisy with disdain
rather than anguish. Eventually, she too decides to bring little change
to her life.
Ju Yeong-jak (Hwang Jung-min) is a successful lawyer who works long hours. While he is working, his wife Eun Ho-jeong (Moon So-ri),
who gave up her dancing career in order to be "a good lawyer's wife,"
raises their young adopted son (Kim Young-chan) and works as a dance
instructor in the local gym.
Ju Yeong-jak's father, Ju Chang-geun (Kim In-mun), an alcoholic with a terminal liver failure, has not slept with his wife Hong Byung-han (Youn Yuh-jung)
in 15 years. She is having an affair with another man, and when
Chang-geun finally dies, she tells Yeong-jak and Ho-jeong about her
relationship with the other man—an old friend from her grade school—and
says that she even plans to marry him. Her daughter-in-law Ho-jeong
supports her.
Ho-jeong herself cannot achieve an orgasm
from Yeong-jak. But for reasons that are not made clear in the English
subtitles, he is not satisfied by her either and is having an affair
with Kim Yeon, a younger woman who is an artist and a former model (Baek Jeong-rim). He receives from Yeon the satisfaction he lacks at home.
When Ho-jeong catches her teenage neighbor Shin Ji-woon (Bong Tae-gyu) peeping
on her undressing in her apartment, she is, at first, angered. But she
then decides to fulfill his peeping wish and allows him to see her doing
nude gymnastics through the window. He then follows her on his bike and
even barges into her dance class. She eventually follows him to the
cinema where they talk. As they watch a movie, she teases him by acting
oblivious to him groping her breasts.
Meanwhile, Yeong-jak runs a drunk motor cyclist off the road while receiving a blowjob from his young mistress.
Yeong-jak takes the man to a hospital but drops off his girlfriend on
the way; his primary concern is that the presence of his girlfriend not
become public knowledge. Due to the other driver's reputation as a
quarrelsome eccentric alcoholic, the authorities assume that the other
driver is entirely responsible for the crash.
Yeong-jak promises the man (Sung Ji-ru),
a postman who needs to be able to drive to keep his job, that if the
postman does not mention that there was a woman in the car he will use
his legal connections to make sure that the man does not suffer any
consequences for having been driving while drunk.
One evening, after she Ho-jeong finally learns about her husband's
affair, she tells Ji-woon to follow her without giving any details
except suggestively saying "I hope you'll be okay." She takes him to the
abandoned dance hall. Without exchanging a word, she just allows him to
mount her, but he soon stops and rolls aside (apparently the victim of premature ejaculation). Not giving up, she fellates him. She then mounts him herself while at the same time giving him a handjob, moving in spasms and moaning loudly as she finally gains her long sought orgasm.
Ji-woon's father soon finds out about their affair and exposes it to
Yeong-jak, unaware that Yeong-jak apparently does not care what his wife
does. However, Yeong-jak fails to keep his promise to the postman. The
postman kidnaps Yeong-jak's adopted son and throws him off a building to
his death. The postman then commits suicide.
Yeong-jak and Ho-jeong are devastated by their son's death. Ho-jeong
blames Yeong-jak for starting the chain of circumstances that ended with
the murder/suicide.
The story ends on an enigmatic note. Ho-jeong discovers than she is
pregnant and knows that Yeong-jak cannot be the father. He offers to
accept the child as his own but she informs him that he is "out of the
picture."
It is unclear from the final scene if Yeong-jak is hurt or relieved by her announcement.
The story also addresses the legacy of the Korean War and its impact on many families. Yeong-jak's father and grandfather escaped from the communist north—apparently
during the war. Yeong-jak's grandmother and his father's sisters
remained in the north and "perished". Yeong-jak's father is last seen in
the final stages of dementia singing a communist anthem honoring North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.
Yeong-jak goes out into the country to inform his grandfather of the
death and discovers that his grandfather has been dead for six months,
and that his grandfather's young female companion had not notified the
other members of the family.
There is also a subplot about the excavation of a mass grave
containing the remains of Korean civilians who were killed—apparently by
the communists—during the Korean War.