Part 1, Nobody Knows, Section 1, p. 4 - 33 Summary

This novel, translated into English from the original Korean, explores how individual members of a family are traumatized by the sudden and unexplained disappearance of "Mom." As the narrative explores the loss, self-recrimination, and in some cases, self-discovery experienced in the aftermath of Mom's going missing, it also considers themes related to the self-sacrifice of mothers, the relationship between past and present, and the shifting nature of identity.

In the first-person narration in which she refers to herself as "you", the narrator (whose name remains unknown until early in Part 2, Section 1) describes the efforts of her family to find "Mom," who has been missing for several days. The narrator describes how she was designated to create a missing-person poster because she was a writer, how her brothers and sisters (particularly her eldest brother...