| Box office | $2.5 million |
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A murder case happens in a stone mansion in Seoul, sometime in the late 1940s after Korea was freed from Japanese colonialism.
Before the case, there is a circus magician named Lee Seok-jin, who was famous nationwide for his extraordinary skills. One day, he met a woman named Jung Ha-yeon, and after saving her from an unpleasant incident, they build up a friendship, which eventually evolved into romance and love. Subsequently, due to her beautiful looks, the circus master recruited Ha-yeon to perform on stage with Seok-jin, who became her partner in every magical performance. Later, both Seok-jin and Ha-yeon married and Ha-yeon became pregnant.
One day on a bus, by chance, Seok-jin saw Ha-yeon on a street passing a letter to a woman. He enquired her what is it, and she said she merely helped a passer-by to pick up a thing. Afterwards, Seok-jin and Ha-yeon went to the capital Seoul on a new contract for further performances. Later, after a performance and while alone in a hotel they lived in, Seok-jin noticed a bag belonging to Ha-yeon was hidden under their bed, and uncovered a rectangular copper plate from the bag, which resembled a tool to make fake cash notes. When Seok-jin asked her about it, Ha-yeon said that during the Japanese colonial period of Korea, a man under the Japanese name Shigeru Okamoto approached her uncle, who was a copper metalsmith, and paid him a huge sum to manufacture the copper plate.
Shortly after Ha-yeon's uncle finished the task, he was killed, presumably by Okamoto for the copper plate, which Ha-yeon found buried under a tree in her house. The Japanese police and Okamoto also repeatedly probed Ha-yeon over the whereabouts of the copper plate, which led to her having to hide it and ran off from these people. Sensing that Ha-yeon's life will still be in danger and she will still be silenced even if she handed over the copper plate to Okamoto, Seok-jin went down wanting to contact Okamoto to stop him from getting near his wife, as he earlier received a letter from Okamoto who ominously stated he will find Ha-yeon. Unfortunately, just as Seok-jin waited for the phone call, Ha-yeon was being pushed to her death by someone, presumably Okamoto.
Grief-stricken over the death of Ha-yeon and his unborn child, Seok-jin turns to alcoholism and abandoned his career as a circus magician. One day, while he was drunk while walking on a street, he stumbles upon a fake bank note which a passer-by littered on the road. Seeing the fake note, Seok-jin slowly became filled with vengeance and decided to avenge Ha-yeon. First, he went after the Japanese police officer who was formerly in charge of investigation Ha-yeon's uncle's murder, and who was still residing in Korea. The Japanese police officer, who was confronted by Seok-jin, managed to subdue him with the help of his subordinates, and asked him his reason to find him. After hearing Seok-jin's story, the policeman, who was about to leave for Japan and who was also being tricked by Okamoto over the fake bank note incident, then gave a description of Okamoto, describing Okamoto, who did not have a photograph, as a Korean man who was fluent in English, Chinese, Japanese and even German, and stated that Okamoto was always together with a woman. Before he leave, he left behind a fully loaded revolver for Seok-jin to kill Okamoto and even scarred him on the lip.
Acting upon the Japanese's tip-off to look for Okamoto in Seoul, where many people used counterfeit bank notes often, Seok-jin changed his name to Choi Seung-man, and changes his appearance by plucking away a chip of his tooth, and became a penniless taxi-driver who always fetch rich customers and businessmen. He also specially place a mat with written German words behind the backseat, as a way to test if the passenger could read it, as well as burning each bank note he received from each passenger to test if the note was counterfeit. This went on for two years, and one night, while Seok-jin was driving a passenger to a brothel, he heard the male passenger telling him what the German words meant and fluently recited them in German; he also found out that the bank note was fake after burning it the moment the man alighted the taxi. Realising that the man could be the mysterious Shigeru Okamoto, Seok-jin secretly entered the brothel and saw him together with the female brothel owner, who turned out to be the same woman he saw together with Ha-yeon on the day before he and Ha-yeon shifted to Seoul.
Under his alias Choi Seung-man, Seok-jin approached the man, and finally, after much begging and pleading, the man hired him as his personal driver; Seok-jin also found out that the man's real name is Nam Do-jin. Seok-jin then spent his days as Do-jin's driver living in Do-jin's stone mansion and secretly watching the man's every move, slowly trying to make a move to execute his revenge plan. One day, Do-jin, who earlier received a phone call looking for him by his Japanese identity, wanted Seok-jin to make a phone call at 10 pm to a number he gave him, wanting him to tell the recipient that he received a copper plate (which was the one used to make fake bank notes) and not to look for him again. The recipient, who was a printer owner involved in making counterfeit bank notes, was later killed by Do-jin after he told Do-jin that the copper plate was in the brothel owner Mdm Sung's possession.
Mdm Sung, who overheard the murder from the phone (as the printer owner had called her prior to Do-jin attacking him), contacted Seok-jin, whom she knew was Ha-yeon's husband. When Seok-jin asked if Mdm Sung was the woman whom the Japanese police officer claimed to be with Do-jin, Mdm Sung laughed and taunted him that Ha-yeon was the woman whom the officer is referring to, and even tauntingly claimed that Ha-yeon was a lover of Do-jin before they separated.