When the scholar Jeong Yak-jeon is exiled to Heuksando Island during the Catholic Persecution of 1801, he decides to write a fish-based encyclopaedia.
Ma-nim (Kim Jeong-ah-II) becomes a widow after her husband dies from sickness and she arrives at Bukgando to get remarried. Her new husband is a handsome and wealthy man but he is killed by a Japanese even before she spends a night with him. Ma-nim is alone in the big house once again. Everyone by her husband's side leaves and only the grandfather and slave named Bau are left behind. One day, Ma-nim notices that Bau has a way of staring at her and she is overcome by a strange feeling. She'd to oppress her desires as a woman because of her two short marriages and strict identity. Bau had never made love with a woman before but she didn't mind his gaze on her. The two of them start a forbidden love behind grandfather's back...
The story of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the turtle ship, and the crew aboard the ship, which unfolded for two months from the Battle of Hansan to the Battle of Busanpo during the 7-year period of the Japanese Invasion of Korea.
General Kwak, despite having retired from military service, organizes a small army to resist the onslaught of an invasion from Japan in the early Chosun Dynasty
Kingdom of Joseon, ancient Korea. A usurper has conquered the throne. His ministers are being systematically eliminated by a mysterious assassin. An arrogant master swordsman is in charge of putting an end to the carnage.
When King Heon-kong falls ill, a power struggle erupts over who will inherit the throne. Tired of all the infighting, the ministers arrange for a branch of the king's family, which had lost all its wealth and was living on remote Ganghwa Island, to inherit. But the heir to the throne is reluctant to leave his island home.
When King Myeong-jong dies, his son takes the throne and the old king's concubines are expelled. One of the concubines becomes pregnant. Believing that only she knows the true father, she claims the unborn child is the former kings and has a claim to the throne. The enemies of the new king, ignoring facts, decide to support her claim and threaten to start a civil war.
In a time of political and social unrest in 19th century Korea, uncouth, self-taught painter Jang Seung-up explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.
Late 18th-century Joseon dynasty. The King is beleaguered and surrounded by traitors of the ruling elite. They plan to assassinate and replace him with a puppet. But the King has some aces up his sleeve that may help him defeat them all.
Ancient Korea, 17th century. The powerful Khan of the Jurchen tribe of Manchuria, who fights the Ming dinasty to gain China, becomes the first ruler of the Qing dinasty and demands from King In-jo of Joseon to bow before him; but he refuses, being loyal to the Mings. On December 14th, 1636, the Qing horde invades Joseon, so King In-jo and his court shelter in the mountain fortress of Namhan and prepare to defend the kingdom.