Queen of Tears follows the love story of a wealthy heiress and her husband from humble beginnings, as the two navigate the roughest patch of their marriage, unaware it’s only going to get rougher for them. All episodes of the Kdrama miniseries are now available on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Hong Hae-In, the heiress of Queens conglomerate, and the CEO of the Queens department store, is slated to inherit it all from her grandfather Hong Man-Dae.
She has everything, but a happy marriage is not one of them. Her husband, Baek Hyun-Woo, is the legal director of the company and lives in the same house, but in a different room.
After their wedding, which was dubbed the “wedding of the century,” they had a blissful time together. However, as time passed, their marriage suffered many rough patches.
Three years later, incessant miscommunication and distance between them have become so bad that Hyun-Woo is seeking a divorce, something that has also been brought on by the disrespect he faces from his in-laws.
When Hae-In’s ex, Yoon Eun-Sung returns to her life, and she has to win his favor to meet her professional goal, Hyun-Woo begins getting jealous.
Meanwhile, Man-Dae’s mistress, Moh Seul-Hee, turns out to be a grand conspirator, who shares a relationship with Eun-Sung as well. The two become the architects of the Queens family’s downfall, taking the helm of the empire themselves.
The family goes in hiding as Man-Dae suffers from a heart attack and is hospitalized in an unknown hospital by Eun-Sung. Meanwhile, Hyun-Woo’s divorce papers are also revealed by Eun-Sung, and Hae-In and Hyun-Woo do go through a divorce soon.
Her family arrives at his house and even as a divorced couple, the two begin working on their miscommunication and finding love for each other again. However, Hae-In’s terminal medical condition also worsens with time.
She goes through a dangerous surgery finally, as Eun-Sung plays another diabolical move, and for a time, Hae-In becomes alienated from all her family, as well as Hyun-Woo. However, they win her back and Hyun-Woo makes her fall in love again.
The enemies are defeated and the Queens family win what belongs to them back. Hyun-Woo and Hae-In get their happy-ever-after, as Queen of Tears concludes.
Ending explained:
Yoon Eun-Sung’s death
The abandoned son of the greedy Moh Seul-Hee, Yoon Eun-Sung learned that they needed to snatch what they wanted for themselves.
Trickery, deceit, and outright psychopathy are all the defining traits of an adult Eun-Sung, who returns to Korea to get his hands on what he wants most — Hong Hae-In.
After failing to get her through dirty means, he pulls off another deceitful maneuver. He manipulates Hae-In, when she gets out of surgery and loses her memory, into thinking he’s been the love of her life and Hyun-Woo and her family are her enemies.
However, Hae-In’s subconscious wins, and her own journal finds its way to her, and she reads all that she had written for herself before her surgery. He rushes to meet Hyun-Woo, who is run over by Eun-Sung’s car.
Eun-Sung then kidnaps Hae-In and keeps her captive with him, intending to coerce her to marry him. However, Hyun-Woo comes to the rescue and runs with Hae-In, to be again confronted by Eun-Sung.
After seeing that Hae-In can’t be his even after all his efforts, he decides to kill Hae-In and hopefully be with her in death. He shoots at her but Hyun-Woo takes the bullet instead.
He’s then shot by the police who arrive to detain him by that time. He dies as soon as he’s grazed by multiple bullets.
Moh Seul-Hee’s downfall
Moh Seul-Hee found the Queens family and saw the golden goose which will be hers. She wanted that life, that money, and that happiness all for herself, and to do she needed to destroy the family methodically.
She was also the one who manufactured Hong Hae-In’s elder brother’s death in their childhood. She was later responsible for Hong Man-Dae’s death as well, whom she had manipulated for years.
After framing the family for a large scam and ousting them out of the shares, she held the reigns on the secret fund of Man-Dae. She used the secret funds to buy more shares, after already receiving her son’s shares when he died.
Inches away from being crowned the chairman of the company, having colluded with parties that want to destroy the company, Moh Seul-Hee never gets to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hyun-Woo and her family play their counter move and sue her for using illegal methods to buy shares. They also accuse her of killing Man-Dae, playing the video file of her poisoning Man-Dae and him having a heart attack.
She is charged with fraud and attempted murder and goes to prison, where she tries to use her fangs on other inmates but gets roughed up.
As she lies on the floor, she only has the depressing snowfall outside to see, and reflect on her crimes and the losses she has incurred because of her own greed.
Hong Hae-In’s death
Hong Hae-In dies in Queen of Tears, but not because of her brain tumor, as it was treated successfully, with a surgery that made her lose her long-term memory.
However, she keeps remembering some key moments in her life after that. Her love and feelings, and her nature are all that remain intact in her subconscious, so she doesn’t have that hard a time adjusting to life with a new mental slate.
Hyun-Woo and she start anew as well. They find their blissful love again and both promise to do better than they did before, which leads to miscommunication and difficulties in their marriage.
They have a kid together and live a happy life. Hong Hae-In dies in 2074, at the age of 84 years old. Hyun-Woo is shown to be offering flowers at her grave and remembers her in the same field as they had met during their youth.
Also Read: Hong Hae-In’s disease in Queen of Tears explained