Lee Geum-ryong and Kim Bo-shim live in the same town and are in love with each other. However, Bo-shim's father, Yun Bong-chun, refuses to give his daughter away to impoverished Geum-ryong and marries her off as the second wife to a wealthy man. Shocked by this incident, Geum-ryong becomes a monk and heart-broken Bo-shim becomes another man's mistress. Geum-ryong comes back to the town to beg for food and runs into Bo-shim who comes out with a gourd of rice. But Geum-ryong is no longer a man of the secular world. He turns around towards his temple in the woods singing a sorrowful song of remorse.