Kim Kyung-ran
The collapse of a department store disturbs a local community, causing strife for some, and bringing some people closer than ever before.
R returns from studying in France and reunites with J, whom he used to live with in Paris.
Jeom-rye works as a sharecropper to make a living for her good-for-nothing husband and her son Yong. But the village men are always trying to seduce her. When she rebuffs her landlord's advances, she is wrongly accused by his wife and is forced to leave. Sam-su, the servant who is smitten with her, offers to lend her husband, Deok-hi, money for her affections. Deok-hi tries to sell her off to Sam-su but Jeom-rye gets him arrested for trafficking humans. Sam-su realizes Jeom-rye's sincerity and drops the charges and Deok-hi repents his ways only too late. He dies of an illness. When her son Yong dies from indigestion after eating rice cakes, she goes off the edge.
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.
On the first full moon of January, in the town of Ha-pyung, there is a festival going on in the yard of Shin Chi-gyu, the town's biggest landowner. They are playing yut, a game of throwing four short sticks. The winner of the game is Ok-bun's husband, Lee Bang-won. Having no money, Ok-bun and Bang-won had been tenant farmers on Chi-gyu's land. With their winnings, they try to start their own business. Chi-gyu had always been drawn to Ok-bun. When Bang-won leaves, Chi-gyu comes on strong to Ok-bun. Ok-bun waits eagerly for her husband's return but Bang-won has failed in his business and returns a pauper. As their dreams go up in smoke, Ok-bun falls into deep despair.
A sequel to Yeong-ja's Heydays follows the career of Yeong-ja’s first love, Chang-su, and his faithful love for her.
A scamp Sang-hyeon who has crush on Hui-jeong shadows her to her house. He sneaks into her home and is surprised by a ghost. He stabbs the ghost who turns out Hui-jeong's mother. Hui-jeong gets married to Yeong-min and lives together with her father who has nobody to turn to. But Yeong-min's mother hates her daughter-in-law and mistreats her. She in the end kills Hui-jeong's father and attempts to kill Hui-jeong. Her dead mother appears to save Hui-jeong from the wicked mother-in-law.
