As for those who have trespassed death and returned, their punishment is to live.
Joey recovers from an overdose of sleeping pills after having her stomach pumped. It was a close call; she had visions of dead people accompanying her during her darkest minutes. But now that she is blessed with a second chance, she vows never to return to self-destruction again, or to Sam -- her romantic interest.
But just when Joey looks forward to a brand new life, she discovers that she is pregnant. Confused and desperate, Joey tries to contact Sam but only gets hurt by his evasive response. Being tortured by the thought of an abortion, Joey finds herself becoming delusional and emotionally unstable. She is frequently threatened by the sudden presence of strangers, and also feels stalked by a mysterious woman. The stalker actually confronts her on one occasion -- making eye contacts with her on a train platform, then, throwing herself at a running train! Joey breaks down at the sight of the suicide, only to discover later that “no jumper” is found on the track…
Joey suspects herself suffering from pre-partum depression. Yet she decides to keep her baby. She is hoping that her love for her child will support her to counter the odds. Yet her problems do not stem from her psyche but her former suicide attempt; the vision of dead people during her near-death minutes was only a prelude to her newfound ability – she has been able to see the dead since. The revelation strikes mercilessly when Joey pays a visit to the hospital and gets trapped in an elevator with a woman in labor -- Joey witnesses the most petrifying stillbirth caused by a ghost…
Joey urges help from a Buddhist monk who reveals an agonizing truth -- beside every pregnant woman stands a spirit awaiting the next life. What Joey has witnessed was indeed a failure attempt of reincarnation that the stillbirth was only a tragic coincidence. The monk further explains that seeing the dead is indeed an innate but degenerated ability of human. This ability is sometimes revived in extreme cases of near death and laboring, during which the survival instinct would utilize every available resource to protect the body.
“A spirit is only a co-existing energy, like a tree, a fly, like you and me,” he explains, “If you have a reason to exist in the form you are now, so do they.”
But Joey cannot live with the sight of the co-existing and the fate of her child –- the woman spirit who has committed suicide is indeed going to be her child! If Karma is the explanation, what good or evil could she have done to this unknown woman?! Or… has she? Joey is determined to unveil the identity of the mysterious woman, but every truth comes with a cost… and this one in particular is not what Joey can afford.