Near the end of the Chosun Dynasty, a vagabond named Eok-swoi wandered over all of Korea. In the end, Eok-swoi settles in a remote village where he becomes the servant of Magistrate Ahn, a man of influence. Eok-swoi engages in an innocent love with Keum-sun, a maiden servant of Ahn. Though he is over the age of 50, Ahn is still childless. He treats his young second wife badly and finally, he turns his eye to Keum-sun. After being alone night after night, the young wife unintentionally starts an affair with Eok-swoi which Ahn discovers. Out of guilt, Keum-sun had rejected all of Ahn's advances to the end. She runs away with Eok-swoi. Afterwards, Ahn becomes disabled and deeply repents his wrongdoings.
When his 'liberal' wife dies, middle aged Jang Tae-yeon stays single for the sake of his only child. When he meets Hwang Yu-young, who is in her twenties, by chance, Tae-yeon gets remarried. Yu-young becomes a young housewife enjoying a well-to-do life. However, as the days go by, she grows more disgruntled by the generation gap between her and her husband. Tae-yeon gets more caught up with his friends. When he finds out of his wife's gradual transformation into becoming a 'liberal' wife, he dies from the shock. Yu-young regrets her husband's death and she realizes too late what it means to be a housewife.
