In a remote mountain monastery above a bustling city lives Hyegok, an old Zen master, his conflicted young apprentice Kibong, and Haejin, an orphaned boy studying to be a monk. The old master, nearing his end, wishes to make the ceremony of his death his final lesson to his apprentice, who is struggling to come to terms with the worldly life he left behind. Meanwhile the young boy has his own awakening to mortality as he attempts to nurse a bird he...