A family decides to commit suicide and gets locked in an emergency staircase.

Kim Bi, South Korea’s well-known transgender female novelist, has constantly focused on the energy that manages to radiate amidst the precariousness of life. 

The hero, Namsu, grew up in a poor hillside neighborhood. He is now the head of his family, but still he cannot escape poverty. He climbs hundreds of stairs every day, delivering parcels, but his life does not improve. Full of pessimism, he decides to commit suicide with his lethargic wife Ji-ae and their six-year-old son Hwan, who was brain-damaged at birth. However, they end up locked in the emergency staircase of a 160-story luxury department store building, which they were visiting for a last supper. No matter how hard they pound at the door, it does not open, and all they can see are endless flights of stairs leading up and down. Even their suicide attempt ends in failure, driving Namsu to feel that he must survive and escape this place. His will for life is rooted not in a dream of a better life, but in despair.