Plot Summary

Byeon Gang-soe, who served prison time for adultery with a local woman, is released and immediately welcomed by a flock of village women. Meanwhile, Ong-nyeo laments her ill fate, as every man she sleeps with ends up dead. Hearing rumors of this, Byeon Gang-soe sets out to find her, believing they might be the perfect match to balance each other out. Ong-nyeo, having teamed up with a tavern keeper to earn money serving guests, causes the instant death of all the local men, effectively turning the village into a settlement of widows. Byeon Gang-soe arrives in this village of widows; after leaving the women—who had lined up to be with him—completely bedridden, he finally encounters Ong-nyeo at the foot of a mountain. Their ultimate union creates such a seismic commotion that it shakes the very foundations of the Japanese archipelago.