Min Ji-suk runs a ticket barwhere customers can purchase tickets for certain servicesin the town of Sokcho in Gangwon-do. She hires Miss Yang (Ahn So-young), Miss Hong (Lee Hye-young), and Se-young (Jeon Se-young) through the employment agency. Miss Yang and Miss Hong, who are well experienced in this type of business, are used to accepting propositions from customers. But Se-young, who is dating a college student named Min-su, rejects all requests for sexual favors. When Min-su professes to having problems with his tuition and finances, Se-young reassures him that she will procure the necessary funds for him. When the bar's clientele begins to dwindle because of Se-young, Ji-suk reprimands her severely. Se-young develops a close relationship with a Captain Pak and even allows him to sleep with her. She asks Captain Pak to find Min-su employment on a boat, but when Min-su comes to Sokcho for his new job, he sees how Se-young has been making her living. Shocked, he turns his back on the job and leaves. When he eventually returns to Sokcho, he scathingly denounces Se-young's morality and severs their relationship. Decades ago, Ji-suk had stumbled into the bar business in a desperate effort to support her husband, who was serving time in prison; she later left him voluntarily out of shame and moral degradation. Concerned that Se-young will end up with the same fate, Ji-suk asks Min-su to meet with her. She begs him not to abandon Se-young, but he flatly refuses. Ji-suk reacts by pushing Min-su into the sea, and suffers a mental breakdown that lands her in a psychiatric institution.
弗兰克(尼古拉斯·凯奇 Nicolas Cage 饰)是一名急救医生,这个争分夺秒的工作让他在日积月累间承担了许多无形的压力。弗兰克救过很多人的性命,但也眼睁睁的看着很多人无奈的死去。这一次,他的急救对象是一个名叫罗斯(Cynthia Roman 饰)的女孩,不幸的是,罗斯最终死去。罗斯的死给弗兰克带来的前所未有的巨大打击,他甚至出现了幻觉,精神濒临崩溃。 在另一次抢救任务中,弗兰克遇见了老人波克(Cullen O. Johnson 饰)和他的孙女玛丽(帕特丽夏·阿奎特 Patricia Arquette 饰),波克的重病让他生不如死,在玛丽和波克的默许下,弗兰克主动结束了老人的生命。而对于弗兰克来说,波克的死带来的是解脱和救赎。