Set in Pusan (the second-largest city in Korea) and beginning in the 1970's, director Kwak Kyung-taek tells the tale of a group of tight-knit friends and their trials and tribulations. They take divergant paths upon reaching adulthood, and their friendship is tested in ways they could never have imagined in their school days. But as time goes by, each of them takes a different life paths. After enrolling in college, Sang-taek and Joong-ho return to visit Dong-su (Jang Dong-gun) and Joon-suk (Yoo Oh-sung), only to find one of them in jail and the other on drugs. Slowly life take difficult turns where friends become rivals in the crime world...