Kasahara Natsuki is a thirty year-old hairdresser from Tokyo who comes to Sapporo to relax and enjoy a vacation during the 2000 New Year's Eve festival/party. Unfortunately, she gets locked out of her room and meets Kaede Soichirou, a 25 year-old local newspaper photographer. His kind nature impresses her, but they don't exchange personal information and write it off as a chance meeting. Like all women her age, Natsuki's worried about finding shiawase (lifelong happiness) by marrying and starting a family. When she goes to a matchmaking meeting, the friend of her would-be beau is none other than Soichirou. After that meeting takes a turn for the worst, Soichirou follows her out and cheers her up by taking her up for a ride in his single-engine plane. They part company once more, still not knowing each other's names, and write it off as a chance meeting. Arriving home, Natsuki's roommate Haruko announces that her brother Soichirou will be staying with them in their house, after being transferred to Tokyo's newspaper.

The plot revolves around three generations of the Shandong family between 1923 and 1976. The narrator tells the story of his family's struggles, first as distillery owners making sorghum wine and then as resistance fighters during the Second Sino-Japanese War; as a drama adaptation there will be a greater emphasis on the female perspective.

Amamiya Kuniyuki is the unemployed son of a tonkatsu restaurant owner. He finds a job that requires a married person, so he lies by saying that he has plans to marry, and he is forced to keep up the charade using Hida Haruno, a part-time worker from the restaurant. The relationship between the two is the key of this romantic comedy, though the series also focuses on family and friendship through Nakai's interactions with the other characters.

Wang Wen Xuan is an idealistic and good-natured man living during a tumultuous period in China. He's in love with his classmate Zeng Shu Sheng, but his traditional mother wants him to marry a girl of her choosing. In the midst of war and the inevitable tension of the times, Wen Xuan is frequently torn between Shu Sheng and his mother. To make things worse, his health slowly begins to deteriorate after contracting tuberculosis.

Adapted from the 1947 novel "Cold Nights" (寒夜, Han Ye) by Chinese writer Ba Jin 巴金

Bai Han is a divine beast, lost his mana and went to the world to search for his spiritual bone. As a result, the spiritual bone was made into mahjong by the mortal Lu Chang Sheng. When Lu Chang Sheng’s parents were playing on Ryukyu Island, the entire island was eaten by one of the four gluttons, Wu Xiao Tao. Wu Xiao Tao found Bai Han and asked him to help take out the island that he couldn't digest. Since then, the three have established a combination called "Shen Beast Mahjong Hall" and embarked on a fantasy adventure.

Ji Eun finds out her sister Hee Jung is the daughter of a famous fashion designer and takes over her place as a real daughter. Ji Eun loses her sense of morality as gets into deeper sin out of jealousy toward Hee Jung who also steals both Jun Ho and Young Min's heart. The fashion designer doesn't have the luxury of enjoying the love of her real daughter, Hee Jung when she dies of leukemia. Ji Eun at last realizes unconditional love of this fashion designer and Hee Jung's forgiveness toward her.

In the Ningyo-cho area of Nihonbashi, Tokyo - a woman was murdered. Detective Kaga Kyoichiro, who just transferred to the Nihonbashi police precinct, is placed in charge of the murder case. With virtually the entire residents of Ningyo-cho's shopping street emerging as suspects, Detective Kaga must use his keen sense of deductive reasoning to uncover the truth.