Sun-hee, a young girl in a Korean family, is the novel’s opening narrator. She is cleaning dishes in the kitchen while the nearby men in her family have a private conversation. They live in a Japanese-occupied country, and are under the imperialistic oversight of the Japanese government. Sun-hee’s father (known simply as Abuji), her uncle, and her brother (Tae-yul) are discussing a rumor they heard about a new Japanese law taking effect, but Abuji doubts they will enact it (9). Sun-hee is secretly listening, though she is aware that it is not a young girl’s place to partake in older men’s business, so she pretends to be busy as they talk.

Sun-hee reveals that she is cunning and able to procure information from her uncle and older brother, but never asks her mother because it is useless to ask women about what the men know (11). Only men are allowed to have a voice, but Sun-hee has learned how to observe and ask questions in order to stay informed. Even though Sun-hee’s father is a vice principal at the local school, he still is under the command of a Japanese principal and therefore has some level of status in the community but not as much as if he were Japanese.