Before she could hold her wedding ceremony, the virtuous Lady Han became a widow and grew old as a virgin. She spends peaceful days with her grandson's wife, Jeom-soon, who became a widow three years after marriage, and her adopted son, Kim Cho-si. This peace is shattered by the arrival of Du-chil, a strong itinerant farmhand. Jeom-soon harbors guilt over her secret meetings with Du-chil. Deeply in love with Du-chil, she conceives his child. Following Kim Cho-si's orders, Du-chil leaves with the baby, raises him into a university student, and then passes away. The son comes to visit his mother, Jeom-soon, but she sends him away.