Summary

In Chapter 1, the unnamed 24-year-old narrator recalls the arrival of a Frenchman named Yan Kerrand to the guest house in Sokcho where she worked. She took his passport and checked him into his room. The guest house was owned by a man the narrator calls Old Park. There was a main building with the reception desk, kitchen, lounge, and guest rooms, and another building that was a house featuring two rooms. A woman named Mother Kim had a food stall in the alleyway between the buildings. The narrator told Kerrand that “Sokcho was a seaside resort” and “There wasn't much to do in the winter” (7). One of the few other guests was a young woman recovering from plastic surgery whose face was covered in bandages. After showing Kerrand to his room in the house, the narrator went to the fish market and picked...