So-jung, a bright, young freelance photographer, is about to leave for America with her caring boyfriend Ji-seok. A crisis comes upon her when she learns that she is gradually losing her eyesight due to a pigmentary degeneration of the retina. Although she knows that she cannot face this catastrophe by herself, she leaves Ji-seok. After a long time of anguish, she decides to give up her photography and devote herself to learning to fly a light aircraft. Why does she turn away from her family and her lover when she needs them the most? What does a true life mean to her? A Smile describes this disparity and her crisis over the incurable disease with humor, affection and sincerity. The film presents a new direction in realism for the Korean Cinema and it heralds the arrival of a talented new woman director.