In 1909, Ahn Jung-geun, a resistance fighter opposing Korea's subjugation by Japan, struggles across the frozen Tumen River.

Ahn decides that he will redeem himself by assassinating Itō Hirobumi, the Prime Minister of Japan and former Resident General of Korea.

Itō is currently travelling by train from China to Russian-controlled Harbin to hold meetings with Vladimir Kokovtsov, the Russian Finance Minister, in which the future of Korea will be discussed.

Meanwhile, Itō is briefed about the assassination plot but refuses to give in and cancel the public reception at Harbin railway station.

The team reaches out to Ms. Gong, a former associate of theirs in the independence struggle who is now an arms smuggler, for explosives to blow up Itō's train carriage.

Unable to procure them in Vladivostok quickly enough, Gong instead gets them from her brother-in-law and former Korean independence fighter-turned bandit in Jilin.

As the team sets out for China, they are ambushed outside their safe house by Russian and Japanese troops led by Mori and the explosives are destroyed.

The film returns to Ahn on the frozen Tumen River thinking about the need to keep fighting for Korean independence no matter how bleak the outlook.