U-il thinks he can fly, like his favourite cartoon character, Toto the Astroboy. His older sister, eleven-year-old U-mi, is doing her best to look after him since their mother died and their father deserted them. They've been shunted from one relative to the next, put up with a 'new mother', and endured their father's escalating violence, and now all they have are their well-meaning but unhelpful neighbours: the Moons, Landlady Grandma, the weightlifting Mr Yi and his squawking widow bird. U-mi does her best to care for her fragile younger brother, but her despair leads her to mimic her father's behaviour, abusing the one person closest to her...