After a traumatic event, a drug trafficker turns sides and conspires with a dangerously ambitious undercover police officer to bring down the mysterious kingpin of a major drug cartel.

When his mother goes missing, Lee Ho-yeon sets out to search for her. In the course of that journey, he discovers his parents' pasts during the democracy protests of the 1980s when student activists rose up against the repressive Chun Doo-hwan regime. Reading a book written by his mother, Ho-yeon uncovers a story of hope, love and betrayal, and struggles to understand painful secrets that have been hidden away for thirty years.

The video evidence of the murder, which is especially brutal and graphic, that shouldn't be released to the public; a reporter who has access to the prosecutor's office hears about a cursed tape in the video archive and begins reporting on it.

After being laid off, Ji-won, an outsourced sanitation worker in a provincial town, seeks reinstatement but is met with indifference. When he uncovers a secret about his coworker Jun-seo, he confronts the supervisor who pushed him out, demanding an apology. That night, an accident forces him to choose between truth and survival.