While serving as a journalist in World War 2 for the Imperial Army of Japan, "Takahashi Minoru" (Pak Ki Ju) sees first-hand the impact on Koreans who have had their national identity forcibly taken from them by the Japanese occupation of their country. It's at this time that he adopts a mantra of viewing an incident before writing a newspaper editorial on it. Several years later he once again visits Korea as a war correspondent during the Korean War and takes home with him several more memories that have a great effect upon him as well. Years later he becomes a respected writer and while giving a speech on the Juche system has his perspective challenged by a young man in the auditorium. Having never seen North Korea he realizes that in order to meet his own high standard of journalism he must travel there and see for himself whether his opinion is valid or not.

Kang-hie recalls from her cell how she was used by Japanese detectives to track down and destroy the Korean Independence fighters. She manages to escape from prison during a break and proceeds to hunt down her former lover who was a Japanese agent.

Jin-ho marries Sakiko, the daughter of a Japanese colonel. When his father-in-law learns that Jin-ho is Korean, he sends the young man to serve in the army in Manchuria where he hopes the soldier will be killed. Jin-ho deserts and tries to live a quiet life with his wife, but her father has decided to hunt him down and kill him.

Prince Yeonsan-gun attempts to sexually harass Yahwa, the wife of Yun Pil-u who was beheaded after being branded as a traitor. Yahwa commits a suicide following her husband but, before she dies, has already asked her cat to make revenge. Since that time, the bodies of the court ladies and the patrol guards are found every morning and ghosts of Pil-u and Yahwa regularly appear along with the mewing sound of the cat. Kim Chung-won, head of the guardsmen and also a former friend of Pil-u, borrows the supernatural power of a senior Buddhist priest and succeeds in getting rid of the ghosts for the peace of the nation.

A woman reaches out from the beyond to marry the man she loves. It isn't until later that he begins to suspect that his new wife is actually dead.

Chun-hyang, the only daughter of an old gisaeng named Wolmae, falls in love with Lee Mong-nyong and promises to marry him. But Lee leaves for Seoul with his father who's an aristocrat, and the new governor, Byeon Hakdo, covets Chun-hyang because she is the most beautiful girl in town. When Chun-hyang rejects his order to serve him at night, Governor Byeon sends her to jail. In the mean time, Lee passes the state exam and becomes a special undercover agent of the king. He comes back to where Chun-hyang lives to save her and punishes Governor Byeon.