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Feminist in its own way, this drawn-out melodrama is about an aristocratic, socially prominent Korean family whose married scion, Chun-dang (Choi Byung-kun) is childless. In order to resolve the issue, the domineering clan matriarch brings in a concubine -- who then discovers that Chun-dang is the sterile one, not his wife. The inventive concubine arranges a tryst with a burly servant and the result is a robust baby boy. She then dares to go against the powerful family by declaring that the boy is hers -- and in so doing, she takes on a matriarch who has already forced the suicide of one daughter-in-law at the "janyo-nok" tree.