The author (Hwang Nam) can open only one of his eyes when he wakes up one morning. The first scene begins with a close-up of this eye. He blinks his eye, and it looks like genitalia. Looking up, he finds a light bulb swaying from the ceiling.
When he is about to leave for work, he immediately begins squabbling with his wife (Moon Jung-suk) for not having polished his shoes. As the scene changes, the author gets his shoes polished in Myeong-dong. He faces eviction if he does not pay the entire rent due by today.
He visits the magazine publisher to collect his contribution fees in arrears, to no avail. Outraged, he falls into despair and goes on a drinking binge with a friend and shouts expletives. His friend buys a pack of cigarette from a pretty girl peddling US-made goods on his way home and cajoles her into having sex with him.
While staggering home, the author gets hit by a jeep driven by Yanggongju, a woman who receives payment from foreign soldiers in return for sexual favors. Coincidentally, the prostitute was his student when he was teaching at school. Injured, the author has no choice but to come over to her place with her.
Deep in the night, he drifts off to sleep. Just then, American solders come in and out; even her ex-husband breaks into her home and drags her out. Her baby keeps crying, and he cannot sleep at all. He opens the closet and finds US-made chocolates and other goods. He gives them to the crying baby to soothe it.
Next morning, the author's w