A historical drama set in the Koryo dynasty and focused on the relationship between a king and his bodyguard. Under the dominance of Yuan Dynasty China, the king of Goryeo Dynasty Korea is pressured to produce a successor to the throne. Unable to make love to his queen because he is in love with his bodyguard, Hong Lim, the king asks the two of them to sleep together instead. This sexual contact formulates a forbidden love between Hong Lim and the Queen.

A wife, overwhelmed with hatred for her husband, inflicts an unspeakable wound on their son, as the family heads towards horrific destruction.

Korean director Kang Yi-kwan evokes such troubled-youth classics as Rebel Without a Cause, The 400 Blows and L’enfance nue in this beautifully rendered character study of a fifteen-year-old boy struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

Movie follows the activities of the Heroic Corps, an anti-Japanese independence organization that existed under the Japanese colonial period in South Korea. The group used violent means to achieve Korean independence.