Hee Tae, a top student at Seoul National University College of Medicine, becomes a local hero in Gwangju. His best friend Kyung Soo, a pro-democracy activist, persuades him to open an illegal clinic for students in hiding from the government. After a factory worker is injured during a protest, Hee Tae agrees to a meeting with a potential marriage partner arranged by his father, in exchange for help transporting himself and the worker. At the meeting, Hee Tae meets Myung Hee, a nurse struggling to afford her studies abroad. Despite their different backgrounds, they fall in love. In May 1980, amidst the Gwangju Uprising, their fates intertwine.