Yang Taek-jo

Jang is attacked in her home by a masked man two nights in a row. Her husband is reluctant to call the police, but they both begin to suspect the odd young man living next door

Innocent Bok-nyeo is sold at 18 years old to an elderly widower who sends her to work in the salt mines. There she is raped by the supervisor. Becoming very cynical about life, Bok-nyeo becomes the mistress of a couple of rich men, Choi and Wang. In this way, she becomes accustomed to the high life. However she panics and takes desperate steps when one of her sources of income is about to cut her off.

Soldiers with the U.N. forces that entered Korea during the Korean War rape a village girl named Eon-rae. The villagers ostracize Eon-rae and her son. Unable to make a living, Eon-rae joins the brothel district that has been set up near the U.N. base on the other side of the river from the village. The war and the introduction of U.S. culture break down the social order of the village. After several village children have died, the villagers put the blame on the prostitutes. Eventually the villagers, unable to maintain the village, leave their homes one by one. Eon-rae and her son also leave

Sam-po is a gambler living without concern for how his wife will manage their houselhold without his earning money. In order to get food and provisions, his wife An-hyeob, sleeps with various merchants in the village. One of the few men she does not sleep with, a lustful servant named Sam-dol, decides to reveal her activities to her husband for revenge.

In Japanese-occupied South Korea, a young man, newly-released from prison, is accepted into a gang for his fighting skills and quickly rises to the top. Based on the life of South Korean mobster and politician Kim Du-han.

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.

Jeong-ho is castrated by an ambitious minister for loving above his station. The minister also happens to be the father of Ja-ok, the girl Jeong-ho loved. He sends his daughter to the king as a concubine in a bid to gain favor, but the king sees through his motives and the instead forces Ja-ok into the position of a lowly kitchen maid. Jeong-ho sole hope in life is to save his former lover.