A poor North Korean fisherman finds himself an accidental defector, and is groomed to be a spy by an ambitious South Korean military officer.
In a small North Korean village near the border of China, there are believers who get together in an underground church, away from the eyes of the persecuting government. When the missionary from China, their only support route, is cut off, things begin to get very tense. Chulho, who had been arrested along with his wife, returns. After losing his wife in the interrogations, Chulho had been released and unseen for 2 years before coming back to his home, claiming that he had been commanded by God to lead the believers across the border and into South Korea. The brothers wonder if Chulho is trustworthy, and whether it is the right thing to do to leave their homeland.
In the winter of 2013, Yong-jun and Jae-sung, a member of the Korean People’s Army, are caught having sex by a superior. After that, Yong-jun decides to defect from North Korea to the South leaving Jae-sung behind. Yong-jun risks his life to step on the land of freedom and meets Tae-kyu. Two years after, Jae-sung comes over to the South, and Yong-jun must decide between Jae-sung and Tae-kyu. This causes misunderstandings and puts them in pain.
Ji-woo, an outcast at a prestigious private school, meets Hak-sung, the school janitor who is actually a mathematical genius who defected from North Korea.
Yong-soo is an ex-soccer player who lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son, Joon. Although living in extreme poverty like many other families in North Korea, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-soo's pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can't even find food for her in North Korea. So he decides to secretly cross the border to China hoping to find the medicine for his wife.
Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.
After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.
Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.
After a few months of social adjustment training, the North Korean refugee Jina moves to a small studio in Seoul and starts her new life. To bring her father to South Korea, she needs money but no matter how hard she works, the discrimination doesn’t let her save enough money.
At the request of his dying father, Zhenchen, a Chinese student, goes to Seoul in search of his mother, whom he has not seen for fourteen years. He soon discovers that she is working as a hostess in a bar…