The story takes place on a mountain slope where defectors from North Korea live. These families sell cheap things such as socks and pens to make a living and there is a serious gap between the parents and their children. A widower Kim Duk-sam (Kim Seung-ho) nags his son Geo-buk (Shin Seong-il) to join the American army. Hwang Jung-soon who lives next door teaches her daughter Bok-soon (Um Aing-ran) traditional Korean folksongs and forces her to become a giseng (Korean geisha). Another neighbor Shin Young-kyun lives with her young daughter and makes a living by collecting cigarette butts. His wife is dying of illness but he has no money to take her to the hospital. His younger brother Choi Moo-ryong is a Japanese university graduate. But wanting to become a novelist, he refuses to get a job. Eventually, he begins to work as a laborer at a construction site. Geo-buk and Bok-soon are sick of their parents who would go on with their god-forsaken lives and run away from them. They did not wish to live as their parents did. Together, they find a job at a textile factory in Youngdeungpo. Sometime later, Geo-buk and Bok-soon's father (Kim Seung-ho and Choi Nam-hyun) come to visit their children. They agree with their children that they have not tried to change themselves for better lives. But now they understand and agree that their children should be different and try to look for better lives. Then they approve of the marriage of the couple and the four of them happily take a walk t