In 1943, Yang Chunsoo, a descendant of a Koryo celadon maker, lives in a small village in the countryside, His younger son, Jongil, makes pottery without his father's approval in order to marry Poonim. When Chungsoo finds this out, he breaks every ceramic piece that his son has made. Poonim, without the money that was supposed to be given by Jongil leaves the village, angry and frustrated. Seven years later, when the Korean war erupts, Jongil returns to the village as an officer of the triumphant communist army. Later his elder brother, Jongsik, returns to the village as a South Korean army officer, Chunsoo stabs himself in the eye in order to stop the two brothers from fighting. The two brothers are, however, executed as scapegoats of an ideology. Twenty years later, Jinhyung, Chunsoo's grandson, takes over his grandfather's pottery business. He then learns about h is ancestor's mysterious past.