The title refers to a Zen riddle for which there is no answer. Noted painter Bae Yong-kyun spent several years devoted to carefully and lovingly creating this challenging, meditative and exquisitely photographed film. A young man who aspires to a life of enlightenment, leaves his family in the city and travels to a remote mountain hermitage to study under an aged Zen Master whose corporeal days are numbered. The master lives alone with a small orphan boy who he has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. As the days slowly pass, the master occasionally shares his wisdom with his followers. Much time is spent following the boy as he learns about the nature of life in the smallest of ways.

In the seclusion of this mountain monastery, the master and his pupils seek enlightenment by losing themselves in the quiet contemplation of death - perhaps the closest cinema has come to conveying the serenity and sense of detachment.