What is the difference between _index.md and index.md?

So if I have this correct. I am having an issue where my old docs site with index.md as the head content file no longer displayed the menu with the latest version of Hugo (see here). The “fix” was to convert the index.md files to _index.md. This fixed the menu issue, but the content of the top level menu items no longer displays in the browser. If I have read this topic correctly, that is the correct behaviour? So how do I have the content in _index.md showing in the browser? Do I create an index.md file in the same content section?