Korea, 1941, for Sei-Young Shin, a young man born into a poor family in the rural south, it is a time of oppression. The Japanese have issued strict provisions against the Korean language, religion, and food, and Sei-Young is learning important lessons about humiliation and defiance. For Heisook Pang, the daughter of a prominent minister in northern Korea, life is easier. But the onset of World War II changes everything, as Heisooks privilages are suddenly stripped away, and she is forced to make a daring escape, slipping across the border into the South, where her destiny crossed that of Sei-Young in an encounter that changes both their lives forever.