Park Tae-joon (Jo Min Ki) is an intelligent law student and a filial son to his parents who runs a mill. His has a younger brother, Tae-soo (Lee Hoon) not quite as academic still quite smart and a known brat in town, and a younger sister, the kind and gentle hearted Sun-hee (Lee Yoo Ri). From the same town as Tae-Joon, Kim Mi-ja (Han Go Eun), his love interest is sick and tired of living in poverty and desires to leave their small town for a better life. One day after their father's death, the family learns that they will lose their home as a pledge due to an assurance their father has made before his death.

From the poverty stricken post war era of the 1950s to the modern times of Korea, this TV drama follows a family and the surrounding characters who rode the drastic changes with passion.