The Rose That Swallowed Thorn

One night in Taipei, a female factory worker is killed on her way home. Koh Kang-young, the lead detective, concludes that she was killed by a poisonous snake from the bite marks left on the victim's neck. Reporter Lee Ok-jung rebuts his theory in her article. Through this incident, Detective Koh and Ok-jung meet frequently and they become friends. Afterwards, two more women are killed in the same manner. It is revealed that Ok-jung can't account for her whereabouts for each murder. When another murder is committed, Detective Koh finds out the truth about Ok-jung. When Ok-jung was three, a unique snake bit her. Therefore, she kills people by biting them like a poisonous snake.

Kang-wook, a law student at Seoul National University, finds himself in a tight spot financially after losing contact with his family in North Korea. He sells his own blood at a hospital to make ends meet, and there he meets and grows close to nurse Jin-young. As Kang-wook faces financial difficulties, Ki-yong, a son of a landlord's agent, appears and tricks Kang-wook into joining left-wing activities. Ki-yong's true identity is revealed by Yoon-ae, a friend from hometown, leading to his arrest. Meanwhile, Kang-wook and Jin-young marry with the blessings of Professor Park and their friends, while Kang-wook's friend Do-hyeon struggles to hide his feelings for Jin-young. Their sweet days together come to an end with the outbreak of the Korean War, separating them. Jin-young, unable to wait for Kang-wook any longer, decides to flee the war with Do-hyeon. Kang-wook, hiding at Yoon-ae's house, is eventually arrested by Ki-yong and the leftists, who had been freed from prison.

O Jin-u of a rich family and a female private tutor at his house are in love, but his family are against their marriage and send him to America. Before he leaves for America, they hold their own wedding and vow to love forever. But once out of sight, her devotion weakens with time and falls in love with Jin-u's friend Seong-hun. Hearing about the fact, Jin-u hurriedly returns to fight a duel with him...

A husband-wife teaching team arrive on isolated Sachi Island. They try to start a school against the opposition of the islanders. To attract students, they organize athletic teams from the island children and promise that they will win the national competitions... a promise they may not be able to keep.

A man meets a woman on his hiking trip to Mountain Seorak, but she suffers from incurable diseases. He becomes infatuated with her hair. When he tells her about his feeling she promises him that she would leave her hair after she dies as part his heritage for the man. But when he looks for her later she is already dead, and her hair was already sold to another person. He meets another woman he becomes intimate with, but finds that she is his biological mother.

The widower Choi is impotent. He adopts the infants Mun and Su-ryun and raises them. Mun graduates from college in Seoul but he can’t adjust to Seoul life so he returns to Choi’s home. Mun learns that Su-ryun is not his sister in blood and he falls in love with her.

After the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, Iljimae, a master of the interlaced sword method, heads to Japan to find the national treasure, the Cheonryongsword, which was robbed by the Japanese pirate Kuroda. Around this time, there were two more men looking for Kuroda, one of them was Ma-cheol, a one-armed swordsman who lost his left arm due to Kuroda's trick, and the other was Kuroda's henchman Okamodo, who lost his newlywed wife and even lost his own eyes. This is Yoshiyama, the swordsman who lost his mind. At first, the three knights, who met by chance, were wary of each other for their own goals, but were captured by Kuroda's persistent pursuit. In the end, after a bloody fight, they succeed in revenge, and Iljimae returns home with the recovered Cheonryongsword.

The matriarch of a highly respected family orders one of her daughter-in-laws to kill herself unless she can produce a child within a year.

Han Wu-song, an antique collector, gets killed while appraising a bronze horse rider statue which trader Wang Dae-in has stolen from a tomb. Dae-in dies on the scene and Wu-song leaves the killer's name on the cave wall before he dies. Dae-in's son Wang Gak thinks Wu-Song killed his father and fights with his son Jung-pa. Trader Kwan and her daughter Mi-ryung stop the fight. Jung-pa and Mi-ryung's love is disturbed by Ju-yang. Gak and Jung-pa chase him to find Wu-song's body with Ju-yang's name on the wall but Mi-ryung appeals them not to kill...

Cheol, an auto mechanic, and Yeong-hui, a maid meet. Cheol lies and tells Yeong-hui that he is the son of a businessman. Cheol pretends to be the French ambassador's daughter. They meet only on rainy days.