The story opens with Kiwan hiding in China following his defection from North Korea. When police discover them, his mother Ok-hee creates a distraction, is hit by a vehicle, and dies. To fund Kiwan's escape to Belgium with a fake passport, his uncle sells her body to a medical facility. Arriving in Brussels, Kiwan faces months of bureaucratic delays, homelessness, starvation, and physical assaults.
While Kiwan sleeps in a laundromat, Marie steals his wallet, which contains the blood-stained money from his mother's death and her photograph. Stricken with guilt after discovering its background, Marie helps him get a position at a meat-packing facility alongside Seon-ju. Concurrently, Marie’s fractured relationship with her father resolves when she discovers that her terminally ill mother explicitly begged for euthanasia to end her agony, forcing Marie to confront her own repressed guilt.
At the factory, an exploitative manager coerces Seon-ju into falsely claiming Kiwan is an ethnic Korean from China to ruin his refugee claim. Although Seon-ju is deported anyway, she redeems herself by leaving behind a newspaper clipping proving Kiwan's defection. During his decisive court tribunal, Kiwan receives word that Marie has been kidnapped by loan sharks over gambling debts; he abandons his hearing to save her, engaging in a violent brawl until her father provides ransom money.
To escape criminal retaliation, Marie flees to Madagascar. With Seon-ju’s clipping and legal representation, Kiwan finally wins official refugee recognition and a Belgian passport. Realizing that true freedom is the autonomy to leave, Kiwan uses his new documentation to travel to Madagascar, reuniting with Marie on a sunlit beach.