Park Nam-u (Kim Jin-gyu) works at a Japanese pharmaceutical company and lives happily with his wife, Gyeong-hui (Choe Eun-hui), in a house filled with beautiful white roses. Not long after hearing the wonderful news that his wife is pregnant, Park Nam-u is drafted into the war in the Pacific. Posted in the Gwandong army, he survives the battle, though his face is burned. Back home, Gyeong-hui receives a telegram stating that her husband is dead. When she gives birth to their son, Cheol-su (Nam Yang-il), she goes to live in Seoul. When Nam-u comes back to the country, he doesn't go to his wife, but rather goes to live in his hometown. On his way home, he encounters a child whose mother is dead, and takes her in as his own daughter. As his daughter, Park Pyeong-suk (Eom Aeng-ran), enters university in Seoul on a scholarship, Nam-u joins a pharmaceutical company thanks to his friend (Heo Jang-gang). Pyeong-suk and Cheol-su meet by chance and begin to have feelings for each other. When the president of the pharmaceutical company (Lee Min) holds a party commemorating a pending patent and invites Nam-u, Gyeong-hui, who is now the wife of the president, runs into Nam-u at the party, and she tells him that Cheol-su is his son. When Nam-u participates in the April 19 Revolution, he finds Cheol-su injured and brings him to the hospital and tells his family. Nam-u leaves, saying that everyone would be happier if he were to disappear. With that, he gloomily walks away.