In 1965, two poor Singaporean children, Chew Kiat Kun (Shawn Lee) and his younger sister Seow Fang (Megan Zheng) live with their mother (Xiang Yun) who is late in her third pregnancy and their father (Huang Wenyong) who is in debt to a local rice merchant. The children make the best of what little they have, while their father works long hours doing odd jobs.
Early in the Korean War in 1950 as the North is rolling through South Korea, South Korean privates Eun-pyo and Soo-hyeok are captured during a battle and brought to North Korean captain Jung-yoon. Jung-yoon declaims to the prisoners that the war will be over in a week and that he knows exactly why they are fighting this devastating war, brother against brother. Afterwards he lets the prisoners go free, so that they can help reconstruct the nation after the war.
The first president depicted in the movie is Kim Jeong-ho, an elderly president at the end of his term. He is a respected leader whose great legacy is bringing democracy to the nation and serving the working class throughout his political life. But Kim is at a moral crossroads when he becomes the unlikely winner of a ₩24 billion lottery jackpot just before retiring. The huge amount of money would guarantee a comfortable life in his old age. However, he remembers announcing to his constituents, smiling before cameras, that if he were to win the lottery, he would donate it to charity. He agonizes in silence, wondering whether to keep it for himself or to make good on his words.
In the opening scene the protagonist begins to reminisce about his youth and remembers the day he was saved from execution in a raid performed by the anarchist cell he would later join. After reaching a safe house the group begins to teach him the tricks of their trade. He later takes part in several missions, though he continues to have difficulty throughout the film with the violence of his new job.
In a remote village called Seokjeongni, the residents manage to learn that North Korean troops have invaded the South via the chief’s radio. Normalcy nevertheless continues for the villagers, who are all preoccupied with more pressing matters: an arranged wedding. Just a few days before the ceremony the groom is forced to flee when news breaks that Northern troops are fast capturing cities and annihilating anticommunist activists. But Seol-hee (Jung Ryeo-won) has no time to brood over her missing, beloved husband-to-be. North Korean troops arrive in town and announce their holy mission to "liberate" the Southerners.
Kiju Han, a journalist, must face his memories of Vietnam as he writes a series of articles on the subject for his local newspaper. The articles attract a fellow veteran, Chinsu Pyon, who begins randomly appearing in Han's life. The film, through a series of flashbacks, depicts both the events in Vietnam and their aftermath in the lives of these two soldiers.