When twenty-year-old Anna Carlson travels from America to a Korean orphanage to locate her birth mother, she's devastated to learn the woman is already dead. But just when it seems her search is over, a stranger hands her a parcel containing an antique comb--and an address. That scrap of paper leads Anna to the Seoul apartment of the poor yet elegant Hong Jae-hee. Jae-hee recounts an epic tale that begins with the Japanese occupation of Korea...