On Jeju Island lives Yongseon, a cantankerous, stubborn old woman. When she learns that her middle-aged son, who has built a life on the mainland, has been diagnosed with cancer, she wants to feed him the doenjang soup made with abalone innards he's been craving. However, as she cannot bring herself to feed her sick son doenjang made from pesticide-grown soybeans, she decides to grow organic soybeans herself: soybeans that only come after seeds are sown, time passes, and a harvest is made. She deliberately takes her time, farming the beans and then making the doenjang. And woven into every moment of that time is her desperate plea: that her son will stay alive long enough to taste it.
