This historical drama, set in 1905, depicts the difficult plight of Korean henequen field laborers in Mexico. The story follows the love between the daughter of an aristocratic family fallen on hard times, and the son of a butcher.

On the day she matriculates in college, Lee-hwa (Jang Mi-hee) meets Yo-sub, a rich man's son who has been sending her anonymous love letters. She accompanies him to his father's vacation house in Cheongpyeong. When Yo-sub tries to take her into his arms, Lee-hwa rejects him and leaves the house. Despondent at being turned down by Lee-hwa, Yo-sub commits suicide, and Lee-hwa resolves never to reject a man who needs her. She falls in love with Wu Suk-gi (Kim Chu-ryeon), a college newspaper reporter involved in student activism. Her meeting with Suk-gi opens her eyes to social consciousness. But with only a week to go before the end of his military service, Suk-gi dies in a car accident. Several years later, Lee-hwa runs into her high school teacher Heo Min (Shin Seong-il). She gives her body as consolation to Min, who has been living a lonely and solitary life since his divorce. But when he asks her to marry him, she turns him down, creates an opportunity for him to reunite with his ex-wife, and departs.