The Beetle Project

Bong-young works tirelessly to support his family of five, while his wife and children are also preoccupied with their respective tasks. Their lack of interaction leads to family estrangement and further conflict down the road.

Chul-soo (Eui-chul Jung) is a student at the local university and a a part-time courier. He has the job so he can pay for the university tuition fees. One day he has to go to the city of Yeosu to deliver the ashes of a dead homeless person. Mi-jin (Joon-hee Koh) attends the same university and was forced to become a surrogate mother so she could pay for her university tuition fees. After having her baby she however changes her mind and flees to Yeosu with the baby. There they both meet each other.

A grandmother lost her only son in a car accident. Her deceased son left her his adopted 7 year-old daughter and letters to his illiterate mother. Scared to reveal her illiteracy, she hasn’t attempted to open the letters from her son. Now, she desires to read the letters but, the only place to teach the alphabet to adult students from foreign countries is closed down as the only teacher is hospitalized. With nowhere to turn, she struggles through self-study. Dong-e, who is a 7 year-old adopted child of her son’s that he reluctantly and temporarily stays with, sees her struggle and helps her study with her books. But, Dong-e’s tutoring soon ends as she hasn’t mastered the alphabet yet herself. Now she decides to attend an elementary school in a remote town as a first grader. So it is now she who helps Dong-e with the alphabet and their awkward relationship begins to change slowly.

Detective Kang gets involved with a drug business to pay the medical bill of his comatose wife. Min-woo confesses to Kang that he has killed his wife, who knows his past. Slowly, Kang realizes his wife's incident and Min-woo are connected.