On the eve of the retreat of the United Nation forces from Seoul in January 1951, following a successful Communist attack, a high army official, Colonel Lee, is shot at. The assailant turns out to be a woman singer at a concert he has just attended. Lee becomes sympathetic as he hears her confession which reveals that her husband, allegedly a Com­munist collaborator, was executed on Lee's order. The widow is sentenced to death, but Lee has other plans for her. . . .

The Korean Minister of Public Information named The Dead and Alive the best film of 1965. The film took two years to complete, and literally employed a "cast of thousands". Keumdong Choi, who wrote the script, is a notable contemporary playwright, while the star of the film, Hyejyung Kim, is one of Korea's leading actresses.