Shortly after Korea gained independence from Japan (1945), North Koreans decide to extort civilians' property in the name of revolutionalizing its land and settle class struggles for proletariats. The film depicts an anti North-Korean concept, detailing the country's situation after the independence. South Korea's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968.

A man tries to raise his two sons and two daughters under some of the most adverse conditions known to man. The father operates a horse-drawn cart, but in a city that is modernizing after the destruction of the Korean War, automobiles are making carts obsolete. The children are experiencing difficulties as well. The eldest son has flunked the bar exam twice and is not hopeful of passing it a third time to become a lawyer. The eldest daughter is mute and married to an abusive husband. The younger daughter tries to pose as a rich university student to move up in life. The youngest son has a penchant for petty theft.

A young sailor arrives in Busan Harbour; an outrageous-looking, woolly bear of a man appears in downtown Busan with a shotgun over one shoulder, a heavy knapsack thrown over the other; a tough-looking young woman joins her friend in robbing a naïve fat man in a suit. The strands of character and story will slowly converge, well after the audience, tuned to the coincidences and mistaken identities of melodrama, has recognised that these three have a shared history and are fated to meet and reconcile.

His own father had hated Crown Prince Sado. The king finally orders to kill him by locking him up in a rice-chest. After his death, his wife Hong goes with her son to her parents' house to live there. Some high officials in the court constantly try to harm Sado's son because they don't want him to become king. But Hong's wisdom saved her son, who grows up to become the 22nd king of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

At the close of the reign of Sin the Great in Goguryeo (B.C.37-A.D.668), royalist Uso is executed by a false incrimination made by a treacherous retainer Yangsin and his sister Jangssi. His daughter becomes a royal concubine of King Nammu, and called Her Majesty Yeonghwa. She revenges herself on the party of Yangsin. After the king passes away, she makes his brother Yeonu accede to the throne and has the whole country under her thumb. But she has no child. When the king begets a son from another woman, she dies of jealousy at last.