Choi Hyeon visits Korea to pay his respects to his recently deceased friend, Kim Chang-hee. He sees his other friend Kang. Hyeon is a history professor in China, but people often mistake him for a weirdo. When people try to connect with him, he snubs them, but maintains an outwardly close relation. After paying his respects, he roams around Gyeongju, capital of the Silla Kingdom, now famous for tombs and tumuli. He visits a teahouse that he, Kim, and Kang had visited seven years earlier. Hyeon gets curious about an erotic piece of art that had been displayed there and has since vanished, and shows an interest in the current owner of the teahouse, Gong Yun-hee. They start to spend the day together. She invites him to her bed, but he is preoccupied with his thoughts and the picture. He leaves in the morning, knowing that some people whom he saw yesterday have died. He wanders more. The next morning at the teahouse, Gong Yun-hee is curious about the erotic art which she has covered with wallpaper. A flashback follows in which Hyeon and his friends seated at the teahouse table comment on the erotic painting, which displays the words "Lets have a drink and then each other". Kim Chang-hee's widow appears to have been the previous owner of the teahouse.