Kim Myung-wu studies modern music in Germany and meets Ji-suk, a pianist. She disappears on the day of his recital to get money for her mother's treatment in hospital and no word from her for a month since. He sees through her mother's funeral when she's gone. When there's a fire in the village, Myung-wu witnesses Ji-suk playing piano at the church watching the flame. She sets a fire at a store she was trying to get the money from but the owner reported her. She blamed her mother's death on the store owner and revenged with the fire. She completes the Pyro-Sonata with help of Myung-wu hiding her from police.

Beginning with the suicide of a film director, this work represents the Korean New Wave Cinema movement that focused on criticizing the Korean society in the 1980s through satire and humor. The journey taken by the characters, who lead low lives at the margins of the society, award them with a sense of liberation, however brief.

A group of widows come with several frauds and scams in an effort to cheat the system which marginalizes them and to make a better life for themselves and their children.

While awaiting the publication of his fairytale about his dementia-stricken octogenarian mother, an acclaimed South Korean novelist receives news that she has passed away, so he leaves the city and returns to her village to take part in the funeral.

Yo-han is the son of a Christian minister. Following his father's career, he joins the seminary without much enthusiasm, then drops out. After doing his military service as a KATUSA, he teaches at the U.S. educational center. When he is given a job teaching in America, he hastily marries in preparation for the move. He is suddenly struck blind, then begins contemplating suicide. Instead he has a religious vision and dedicates himself to the ministry, and opens a church for the blind.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, Su-ji and Oh-mok lose their parents. Along with their brother Su-cheol, they go live with their mother's parents. As they go to take refuge, Su-ji loses Oh-mok by accident. Time passes and with her older brother Su-cheol's success, Su-ji enters the high society. But due to the guilt of losing her younger sister Oh-mok, she does a lot of charity work constantly looking for Oh-mok. When Su-ji finally finds Oh-mok in an orphanage, she turns coldly away from Oh-mok for not having any evidence to prove that she is her sister. Oh-mok marries Il-hwan whom she has met at the orphanage and they live a hard life. Finally, Su-ji is convinced that Oh-mok is her sister but after living through such hardship, Oh-mok breathes her last.

After 10 years of marriage, Sun-young and Tae-yeon save up a significant amount of money. Tae-yeon runs a food processing company and works hard to expand business but Sun-young wants to enjoy the fruits of their labor. While partying with her friends, she meets fashion designer Pierre Kang and has an affair with him. When her infidelity is found out by her husband, he asks for a divorce. When he refuses to forgive her, she seeks it through suicide.

Hye-sung grew up poor but he has a gifted talent for baseball. Eom-ji has watched over him since they were young. Hye-sung falls in love with Eom-ji but when she transfers to another school, they don't see each other for years. Hye-sung and Eom-ji meet again at a baseball field but Um-ji is now the girlfriend of the exceptional hitter of high school, Ma Dong-tak. Hye-sung competes endlessly with Dong-tak over Eom-ji. But he ends up with a serious shoulder injury and gives up baseball. Then Manager Sohn Byung-ho gathers up dismissed baseball players and forms a team. Manager Sohn puts his team through extreme training and Hye-sung returns to the baseball world. He competes once more with Dong-tak, who is by Eom-ji's side.