This bittersweet coming-of-age novel, told through the eyes of a rebellious young girl, vividly captures the struggles of families caught between two cultures in the Korean community in Toronto in the 1980s. Family secrets, a lost sister, forbidden loves, domestic assaults Mary discovers as she grows up that life is much more complicated than she had ever imagined. Her secret passion for her English teacher is filled with problems and with the arrival of a promising Korean suitor events escalate in ways that she could never have imagined.