What happens at the beginning of Past Lives? How does Past Lives end?

In the movie Past Lives, Na Young and Hae Sung are 12-year-old classmates who develop feelings for one another and go on a date set up by their parents. Shortly thereafter, Na Young’s family immigrates to Toronto and the two lose contact.

Na Young changes her name to Nora Moon. Twelve years later, in 2012, Hae Sung finished his military service and Nora immigrated to New York City. One day, Nora discovers on Facebook that Hae Sung had commented on a post that he was looking for Na Young, unaware of her name change.

They reconnect through video calls but are unable to visit each other, as Nora plans to attend a writer’s retreat in Montauk and Hae Sung is moving to China for a Mandarin language exchange. Eventually, Nora tells Hae Sung they should stop talking for a while, as she wants to focus on her writing and life in New York.

At her retreat, Nora meets Arthur Zaturansky and they fall in love. Hae Sung also meets a woman, whom he begins to date. Twelve more years pass, with Arthur and Nora married and living in New York. Hae Sung, no longer with his girlfriend, goes to meet Nora there.

Arthur wonders if he is a roadblock in their own imperfect love story, admitting to Nora that he harbored suspicions that Nora married him to secure a green card for U.S. residency. Nora affirms that she loves Arthur. The following night, the three go out to dinner.

Initially, Nora translates each dialogue but eventually speaks with Hae Sung exclusively in Korean. He wonders what they were to each other in their past lives, and what would have happened if she had never left South Korea and they stayed together.