Summary

In Chapter 1, Jin Han told Lidija Jung the story of the kisaeng her mother told her. In the story, a kisaeng and her lover climb a tree. When the lover told his family he wanted to marry the kisaeng, they were furious, calling her a “whore of a girl” (1). The lover’s father threatened to kill him for loving the kisaeng. The lover fled with the kisaeng, but when they climbed the tree, they fell and died. Jin’s mother believed the story proved their family was cursed and Jin would inherit the same spoiled life (2). Jin was to “kill this longing” inside of her to survive (2).

Jin is unsure why she told Lidija the story when they met “that June night in Marin” at a mutual friend’s party, as she had not even told her husband Philip (2). Philip’s friend Irving...