The story begins with Oh Gwan-seok, a cunning and meticulous gangster who has raised his nephew, Oh Hee-dong, since childhood. Gwan-seok, a key orchestrator of the plot, uses Hee-dong as a pawn in his schemes, having molded him into a criminal through years of manipulation. Gwan-seok is obsessed with a mysterious discovery in the sea near Shinan, which he learns about through his long-time business partner, President Song. This discovery, a treasure ship laden with valuable porcelain, becomes the catalyst for the story’s events. Gwan-seok sets out to exploit this find for a massive profit, pulling in a network of accomplices, including Hee-dong, to execute his plan.
Oh Hee-dong, now 24, is a young gangster with a cool, fearless demeanor but a naive streak, particularly when it comes to women. Raised by Gwan-seok, he has followed his uncle into a life of crime, starting with petty thefts in his youth and escalating to more serious offenses after a stint in juvenile detention. Hee-dong is tasked with diving to retrieve the porcelain, a physically draining job that Gwan-seok uses to keep him occupied and unable to interfere with his broader schemes. Despite his criminal lifestyle, Hee-dong displays moments of vulnerability, such as falling for a female college student and later trembling in fear when confronted by Yang Jeong Suk, a formidable figure in the story.
President Song, Gwan-seok’s business partner, is a materialistic man who preaches loyalty but prioritizes personal gain. He oversees Na Dae-sik, a 26-year-old thug with athletic prowess but poor self-control, who is likely his illegitimate son. Na Dae-sik is a bumbling, alcohol-loving character plagued by gout, often making foolish decisions that undermine his tough exterior. Song also works with Captain Hwang Myeong-su, a calculating ship owner in Mokpo who lacks his own vessel but wields influence over local residents. Hwang is willing to kill to secure the porcelain but meets a gruesome end when Hee-dong kills him by smashing his head with a rock during a power struggle.
Im Jeon-chul, another thug under Chairman Cheon, is a large, intimidating figure who initially seems formidable but is revealed to be cowardly and foolish. He is secretly the former husband of Chairman Cheon’s current wife, Yang Jeong Suk, and is terrified of being sent underwater, suspecting that Gwan-seok and others are plotting to kill him. His reluctance to dive leads to a cycle of manipulation, where he tricks Na Dae-sik into taking his place, only for Dae-sik’s gout to worsen from excessive drinking and eating. Im Jeon-chul’s fears are justified, as Gwan-seok and Hwang eventually drown him under Chairman Cheon’s secret orders.
Chairman Cheon, a wealthy businessman aiming to establish a museum for Emperor’s University, seeks the porcelain to display in his collection. A meticulous but emotionally unstable figure, he is wary of his current wife, whom he has not registered in his family records due to suspicions about her motives. His wife, a cunning and ruthless woman from Yeo Sang, was once married to Im Jeon-chul and now manipulates the group to secure her own power. When Cheon falls into a coma after she induces him to drink heavily, she seizes control of his company, ousting his relatives and aligning with a hospital doctor to cover her tracks. However, Cheon’s foresight in distributing his wealth to relatives and loan sharks, including Park’s grandmother (Namdaemun Grandma, his ex-wife’s sister), ensures that his wife inherits only a bankrupt company riddled with debt.
Other players in the story include Ha Young-soo (Mr. Ha), a boastful but capable associate of Gwan-seok who likens himself to a tiger and is skilled in cooking but dies in a warehouse fire set by Hee-dong. Jo Cheong, a notorious thief from Gwangju, and Busan Professor Kim, a conman with ties to Japan, also vie for the porcelain but meet violent ends, Jo Cheong burns in the warehouse, and Professor Kim is killed by Busan gangsters after scamming them. The son of a Busan antique shop owner, a young, formidable gangster trained as a wrestler, briefly dominates with his strength and dialect-heavy bravado but drowns when his gang’s ship catches fire during a chase by Hong-gi, a corrupt Mokpo police officer. Hong-gi, a former lackey turned local leader, emerges as a victor by taking bribes and ignoring the gang’s pleas for help.
A young woman from a Mokpo teahouse, initially ambitious to move to Seoul, becomes entangled in the scheme when she tries to manipulate Hee-dong. Her lies about pregnancy are exposed by Gwan-seok, leading to her humiliation and eventual abandonment after being scammed out of a valuable piece of porcelain. As an acquaintance of President Song, shefacilitates the grave-robbing scheme but flees with some money when Yang Jeong Suk takes over, becoming the story’s sole survivor and final victor.
Yang Jeong Suk, believing she has secured the company, is outmaneuvered by Cheon’s relatives and left with nothing but debt and police scrutiny. She joins forces with President Song to poison Gwan-seok and Hee-dong, spiking their alcohol and meat. However, the plan backfires when the truck driver also consumes the poisoned goods, causing a crash that kills Song, Cheon’s wife, and Gwan-seok, who is already gravely injured after Cheon’s wife stabs him in the eye. Hee-dong, the only survivor of the crash, is left severely disfigured, with burns, a lost eye, and a missing leg, embodying the story’s theme of karmic retribution.
In the end, the pursuit of the treasure ship’s porcelain leads to a cascade of violence and betrayal, with nearly every character meeting a grim fate. Gwan-seok’s manipulation of Hee-dong creates a cycle of crime that destroys them both, while the greed of figures like Song, Yang Jeong Suk, and Hwang Myeong-su leads to their downfall. Hanbok-dong’s escape with minimal gains and Hong-gi’s corrupt triumph underscore the story’s cynical view of human nature, where survival often hinges on abandoning morality. The narrative concludes with the complete destruction of the group’s ambitions, leaving only devastation and a single intact piece of porcelain, swindled by the antique shop owner, as a hollow remnant of their greed.
