It's 1986 and a nervous woman is waiting outside what passes for a fancy house in Seoul. A car drives up and the woman quickly hides. Two women and a baby get out of the car. Why, is that EMIL from A Hundred Year's Inheritance? What happened to her hair? It's Park Won Sook and here she's playing Kang Jung Sim. But since she's still evil and still a mother, let's just stick with her old moniker of EMIL.
Anyway, once Nervous Woman/Yoon Young Hye (played by Do Ji Won) spots the baby she quickly runs over to the group. The baby girl, Ha Bin, belongs to Young Hye and she wants to see her baby. EMIL orders the nanny to take the baby inside. She blames Young Hye for the baby's father dying in a car accident and so won't let the mother see her own child. Young Hye is left locked outside the gates, crying after Ha Bin.
Now let's jump to the May Queen set. In fact, isn't that the actor who played Hae Joo's dad? The second one, I mean. That girl had a lot of dads. Speaking of dads, the other guy in this scene played Psycho Dad in City Hunter. City Hunter had a lot of dads as well. But I digress...
So these two guys are fisherman. Psycho Dad is Kim Han Joo and is played by Kim Sang Joong. May Queen Dad is Chun Uk Jo (played by Ahn Nae Sang). They've just come back to the dock and have noticed Young Hye waiting for them. She and Han Joo were in the same orphanage together. He asks after her daughter and is surprised to learn how EMIL took Ha Bin away from Young Hye.
Han Joo offers his unrequited love a place to stay for the night. Something that sticks in Uk Jo's craw. How can Han Joo be so nice to the woman who ripped his heart to pieces? Suddenly Han Joo's spidey senses start to tingling and he goes looking for Young Hye. She's doing the Slow Walk of Death into the ocean, giving Han Joo plenty of time to stop her from her lame suicide attempt.
Back at the big house, EMIL is watching adorable baby Ha Bin toddle around.
She's soon joined by her daughter and her son-in-law, Seo Jin Gi (played by Jo Min Ki of Two Weeks.) EMIL doesn't like Jin Gi because he's from the same dang orphanage as Young Hye. Good grief, is everyone on this show an orphan?
Jin Gi is shocked and dismayed to have Han Joo get in touch with him. Han Joo has the audacious plan to kidnap Young Hye's baby back and wants Jin Gi's inside help. Reluctantly Jin Gi tells about a birthday party they'll be throwing for Ha Bin up at the big house. Han Joo and Uk Jo clean up as best they can and crash the party.
After snatching the baby, the two men don't exactly make a clean getaway. They've been seen by several people, including EMIL. The duo are being chased by several cars (and Ha Bin is not in a protective baby seat!) They're putting this baby into so much danger!
Han Joo is able to reunite Ha Bin and Young Hye but Mom is too stupid and too slow to get the hell out of there. Suddenly a bunch of black cars show up with police sirens not far away. Han Joo remembers his fighting skills from City Hunter but alas, he's outnumbered. Ha Bin is once again ripped away from her birth mother. Han Joo is sent to prison for kidnapping. Yet Uk Jo isn't. He must have had a better lawyer.
Time skip three years later. Ha Bin is now played by the adorable Lee Chae Mi from Two Weeks. EMIL is showing her grandchild the family business, the Golden Fishery. It's been three years and EMIL's hairstyle is still atrocious. There's a bunch of money missing from the company and EMIL takes it out on Jin Gi (who may actually be responsible for the money being missing in the first place.)
The next day EMIL takes Ha Bin to the amusement park. Ha Bin goes running off to see something and gets lost in the crowd. EMIL has the park searched but there's no sign of her granddaughter. EMIL jumps to the conclusion it was Young Hye who somehow made off with Ha Bin. What we know is it was really Jin Gi behind the kidnapping in an effort to distract EMIL from the whole missing money situation.
Poor Ha Bin is locked up somewhere in a shed. Ah, but the little girl notices there's a loose board over the window. After working on it, the board falls away and she's able to climb out. Although when she jumps down she lands on the fallen board which had a nail sticking up. I hope she's had her tetanus shot. Crying and bleeding, Ha Bin makes her way to the rocky seaside cliff where May Queen always liked to film.
Meanwhile back at the shed Jin Gi's partner in crime has come to feed the girl and discovers she's escaped. He goes running towards the cliff but when he gets there all he finds is one shoe and a bloody stocking. Trying to cover his tracks, the unnamed kidnapper throws the shoe and stocking into the sea, then goes back and burns the shed down.
When the police come to investigate the burning building they find the charred remains of a child's pillow. Young Hye identifies the pillow as something she made for her daughter. Following a blood trail, the authorities start searching the cliff and seaside for any sign of Ha Bin. They're able to retrieve the bloody sock and shoe.
Jin Gi didn't mean for the little girl to get killed or anything but now that the situation has turned sour he fears being connected to it. The first kidnapper has gone into hiding so Jin Gi orders a second kidnapper to find the first one and silence that guy for good.
Young Hye comes to the big house to throw some food around and swear vengeance against EMIL. She'll destroy that precious Golden Fishery.
Ha Bin awakens in a small bedroom, her injured leg bandaged. Nearby sits a young boy, Kim Man Won. He had been out walking along the seaside when he discovered her unconscious body washed upon the shore. Also in the bedroom is the boy's sickly grandmother who can't talk. Ha Bin can't talk either, nor can she remember her name or where she came from.
Uk Jo and Jin Gi are at the prison to greet Han Joo as he's being released. Han Joo learns about Ha Bin's disappearance and now Young Hye has also gone missing. Uk Jo has been struggling to fish on his own but someone keeps stealing his catch. Han Joo and his buddy stake out the dock and catch the culprits in the act. It's Ha Bin and Man Won. The boy tells the men his sob story of needing the fish for money to take his sick grandmother to the hospital. BTW, Ha Bin has regained her voice.
The men accompany the kids back to the hovel to check on Grandma. Turns out she's dead. Much crying ensues. Han Joo and Uk Jo bury the old woman in the backyard. Feeling sorry for the kids and not wanting to send them to the orphanage, Han Joo makes the grand leap of adopting them. (Because it's so easy for a former felon to adopt kids, ya know.) Since Ha Bin can't remember her name, Uk Jo names her Baek Won (which means 10 cents).
A rather nice time transition ages Ha Bin/Baek Won up to Kim Yoo Jung of May Queen. (Love her.) Man Won is now played by Seo Young Joo, also of May Queen. And here come the other kids Han Joo has adopted along the way. Were they in May Queen? I wouldn't doubt it at this point.
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