Continuing the storyline started in Madame Aema 4, Aema's husband is still carrying on an affair with the Japanese woman, Hanako. After much romantic complication, just as Aema decides to divorce her husband she discovers that he has died in Japan because of Hanako.
In 1950 an unsatisfied widow makes her living selling medicine from village to village while searching for an energetic man to wed. She meets a strong but unintelligent man who works on a boat and wrestles and plays the drum in his spare time. After living with him happily for a short time and bearing him a daughter, the widow's unsatisfied spirit leads her astray. Years later she secretly watches her daughter's wedding, and leaves, beating a drum.
Emi, a nude model, falls in love with Mako, a promiscuous lesbian. After much drama, Emi comes to the conclusion that the only way she can have Mako to herself is to kill her.
In this entry in the long-running Madame Aema series, three Aemas are represented: a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth generation of women bearing the name Madame Aema. The fourth generation Aema lives on Jeju Island with her daughter and memories of unrequited love. The fifth generation tries to console the fourth generation Aema, while dealing with her own issues of isolation after declaring herself an independent woman. Sixth generation Aema is undergoing marital difficulties with an unfaithful husband whom she eventually divorces.
In this episode in the long-running Madame Aema series, Aema leaves her selfish, middle-aged husband to pursue a career as an actress. She meets a performance artist who persuades her to perform perverted sex acts in the name of art. Finally, repenting of her decision, she returns to her husband.
A beekeeper becomes romantically involved with a mudang and her daughter in a village. The daughter leaves with the beekeeper, but after her mother dies in a house fire, she returns to the village leaving the beekeeper alone.
Following the multiple-Aema theme started in Madame Aema 6, this entry in the series has two women named Madame Aema. Both women are dancers, and are friends who differ in their thoughts on marriage. One believes in remaining single, and the other believes in marriage, and does so. After being disappointed with her husband's cheating and gambling, she leaves him. They are later reconciled after the husband repents of his behavior.
This time in the Madame Aema series, Aema leaves her husband, tired of his demanding ways. She moves to Jeju Island and lives with her friend, Young-ju. She begins having an affair with a member of a Samul nori group. Shocked by Young-ju's lesbian advances, and persuaded by her boyfriend, Aema returns to her husband.