When poverty-stricken Korean-Japanese (Zainichi) discover there is valuable iron ore in the rubble of a destroyed shantytown they plan to haul it out for profit. Amidst this plan there is discrimination, war and an infatuation between a man and a woman, but like everything around them there and owing to the forces around them, there is as much chance that these may burn to ashes and be destroyed or be the beginning of something new.

1958년 일본 전후 오사카 병기 공장지대를 배경으로 재일 한국인들의 고난에 찬 삶을 그린 재일 작가 양석일의 원작 소설을 영화화한 작품이다.