The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Dusapin, Elisa Shua. Winter in Sokcho. New York: Open Letter, 2021.

Winter in Sokcho is narrated by an unnamed 24-year-old woman who lives and works at a guest house in the resort city of Sokcho on South Korea's border with North Korea. The narrator checks in a guest, an older Frenchman named Yan Kerrand from Normandy, and tells him about local attractions. It is winter, so the beach resort city is largely empty. After checking Kerrand in, the narrator goes to the fish market where her mother works. The narrator notes that people in Sokcho gossip about her because her father was a Frenchman who seduced her mother and abandoned her. That night, Kerrand does not come to the guest house for dinner, which the narrator always prepares. The following night, the narrator sleeps at her mother's house, and her mother chastises her for not yet being married. The narrator replies that she and her boyfriend, Jun-oh, will get engaged soon.

The next day, the narrator sees Kerrand on the beach. They have a conversation, and the narrator tells Kerrand she attended university in Seoul, where she studied French and Korean literature. Kerrand tells the narrator that he is a comic book artist. Later, she stands in the doorway of his room and watches as he draws a picture of a woman, then blacks out the drawing with a blob of ink. Jun-oh visits the narrator and tells her he will be leaving soon for Seoul, where he is going to modeling school. He wonders if the modeling agency will require him to get plastic surgery, then tells the narrator she might consider having surgery too if she ever wants to work in Seoul. He touches a scar on the narrator's leg she got from falling on a fish hook as a child and she becomes annoyed. Later, at Jun-oh's apartment, the narrator looks at a picture of herself and observes her “bones sticking out” (32).

The narrator accompanies Kerrand to the border with North Korea. Kerrand is surprised she has never been there before, suggesting she might have gone at some point “Out of a feeling of solidarity” (40). She replies that only tourists go to the border. They then visit a museum, where the narrator is annoyed that a ticket seller speaks to her in English, presuming she does not speak Korean.

The narrator searches for information about Kerrand on the internet and discovers he is the creator of a comic series about “a globe-trotting archaeologist” (45). The narrator and her mother go shopping for outfits for the upcoming Seollal (New Year) celebration. They eat a meal together and the narrator feels compelled to stuff herself. Her mother tells her she will need to watch her figure if she wants to wear her Seollel dress on her wedding day.

Back at the guest house, the narrator observes a guest — a girl whose face is covered in bandages because she has recently had plastic surgery. The narrator gives Kerrand a Korean comic book she bought for him. They go to a restaurant together and the narrator is annoyed when the waiter assumes she does not speak Korean. The narrator tells Kerrand about her French father and asks him if he plans to set an issue of his comic in Sokcho. Kerrand is non-committal. He asks if she will help him by showing him around and she agrees.

The next day, the narrator discovers the radiator in her room has broken, so she moves into a room next to Kerrand's. She feels disgusted when she passes Kerrand while wearing only her nightgown and realizes he must have seen her scar. The narrator goes to the public bath with her mother, who tells her she looks thin. Later, she speaks to Kerrand again. He asks about her future plans, and she says that she would like to see France. She does not tell him she feels she cannot leave her mother. That night, the narrator receives sexual text messages from Jun-oh. She touches herself while thinking of Kerrand on the other side of her bedroom wall.

The next day, the narrator and Kerrand walk along the beach. He compares the beach in Sokcho, with its sub-machine gun bunkers, to the beach in Normandy. The narrator tells him that it is different, because the beach in Normandy was the site of conflict long ago, whereas the beach in Sokcho is scarred by a conflict that is still occurring. She tells him that a tourist from Seoul was shot in the water the previous summer when she accidentally swam over the border into North Korea.

The narrator, her aunt, and her mother have a meal for Seollal. The narrator's mother prepares fugu (blowfish). She is the only fishmonger in the city with a special license to make it, as it can be poisonous if prepared incorrectly. The narrator's mother and aunt make comments about the narrator's physical appearance and the possibility of her having plastic surgery. The narrator overeats again, and she feels insecure when she passes Kerrand because is bloated.

The narrator and Kerrand go to a cafe and discuss Kerrand's comic. He says that he is having trouble drawing a female character who will be a love interest for his archaeologist character. He wants her to be “A woman for all time” (119). This bothers the narrator and she storms out of the cafe.

Jun-oh returns from Seoul and visits the narrator at the guest house. They have sex. In the guest house lounge, the narrator watches the girl with bandages on her face remove all of the bandages. She looks “like a burn victim” (124). Soon after, the narrator and Kerrand discuss his comic again and the narrator tells him that his comic's hero will not find whatever he is looking for in Sokcho. She leaves Kerrand's room and eats an entire sausage, then vomits.

The narrator breaks up with Jun-oh. Kerrand tells the narrator he is leaving Sokcho in four days. She becomes angry. She feels that Kerrand was able to show her an “unfamiliar self” that is from “the other side of the world” (134). Three days later, Kerrand finds the narrator in the guest house laundry room. He tells her he would like to thank her for her help, and she asks him to taste her cooking. He agrees.

The narrator prepares her mother's fugu recipe. She takes it to Kerrand's room but discovers he is already gone. He has left behind a sketchbook, which contains a drawing of a woman with a scar on her leg.