Suk-hee's mother is remarried to a man who has a son a year senior than Suk-hee. The two don't get along well first, but soon they grow intimate. Suk-hee learns, though, that she needs to give up her love for her mother's happiness. One day she leaves her mother and her new family, and goes on her way to her hometown, where she sees a Zelkova tree.

After her father, failed at stock investment and was shocked to death, a girl enters a textile factory and supports her family. But living on her small salary and repaying her father's debt is too difficult for her. In the end, she tries to kill herself together with her young brother. But only her brother dies, and she, who survives, stands at the bar guilty of patricide. She deserves the death penalty, but the court takes into consideration her circumstances and is generous enough to open up a new road for her to start again. A real-life story.