A former scriptwriter for TV programs, Cho took two months to write the story as according to her, the title character "Kim Ji-young's life isn't much different from the one I have lived.

[5] The stages are as follows: The novel opens with a young South Korean woman experiencing a strange problem, Kim Jiyoung is fully impersonating other women she knows, and does not seem self-aware of the fact.

Jiyoung does well at school despite stress in her home over finances, harassment by a boy playing “pranks” on her and an incident of stalking she faces while going to and from cram-school.

Work becomes important to her and she finds a female mentor among the upper level professionals there who takes her under her wing and is doing her best to make the workplace better for women than it was when she first started.

The one main issue is his extended family put a lot of pressure on them to have a child, a son specifically, and her husband does not defend her from their pushing.

Later she endures ridicule for being a “roach” and freeloader as a stay-at-home mom from young career men who witness her daring to enjoy a small break with her baby in the park, and is told off by her doctor for having it easier than women “in his day” and still complaining of stress.

He describes his views on her case, sounding very sympathetic and aware of her situation being abused for being a woman and the toll it has taken on her, combined with potential postpartum depression.

He digresses to tell the story of some incidents around their home, including the stress of his misbehaving son and his wife’s resentment at his lack of engagement as a parent.

The narrative ends with his attempted feminist reflections turning back to his own office, where a female employee is resigning because she is pregnant.

Ironically, for a man who claims to understand Kim Jiyoung and care for her plight, he notes that he will have to be sure to hire an unmarried woman so he doesn’t face this same inconvenience again.

The book turned out to be an international bestseller and in 2018 it became a part of the feminist campaign in South Korea as well as the "Escape the Corset" and #MeToo movements.

[13] But despite the novel's popularity and timely message on sexism in Korea,[14] controversy still arose when Red Velvet member Irene shared during a fan meet[15] that she had read Kim Ji-Young.