A lovestruck teen plans to win the school heartthrob by going from curly to straight hair — until a new transfer student changes everything.

South Korea, 1998: While the country moves closer towards democracy, Young-oak remains at odds with his female-connotated name while attending a boy's school where the air is thick with testosterone. The young man is struggling to fit in and find a new name among corrupt teachers and the teenagers' violent power games, which are as subtle as they are extreme. Behind his mother Jeong-sun's seemingly unflappable exterior, a past long repressed is reemerging, which she is reluctant to face. Yet confrontation is unavoidable – and it leads back to the national tragedy surrounding the Jeju Uprising of April 3rd, 1948.