"Highway Family" tells a story of a homeless family taking shelter in highway rest areas, but the movie neither looks down on their poverty nor tries to deliver a message about what is right or wrong.
 
Instead, director 'Lee Sang-moon's feature debut film essentially leaves the audience with this question: What is a family?
 
The movie follows Ki-woo's family camping out in highway rest areas with a small amount of money he borrows from passersby to feed his pregnant wife 'Ji-sook' and two children. ‘Ki-woo’ asks for their account numbers so he can pay them back, but he never keeps his promises.

At first sight, there is something too happy about the family living under the motto of "life as a journey."
 
But it is not an ideal place for the girl and the boy, each aged 9 and 5, who are often hungry and exposed to danger when they play hide-and-seek in a parking lot full of cars, including heavy-duty trucks.
 
‘Young-sun’ sympathizes with them and lends 70,000 won ($50) to ‘Ki-woo’ but later discovers that he repeatedly takes money from people using the same tactic. She reports 'Ki-woo' to police and he is arrested on charges of fraud.
 
Unable to leave the pregnant mom and her kids in a police station and still grieving the death of her son, 'Young-sun' takes them to her second-hand furniture store.
 
They seems to get along in a safe place, but 'Ki-woo' wants his family back and escapes from the police detention center. Being chased by police, the penniless man haunted by traumatic memories transforms into a violent lunatic.