[1] Suk-gi dies in a car accident and she receives a posthumous letter from him accusing her of being selfish for withholding from him that which she could give without cost to herself, and valuing her chastity more than those she claims to love.

Graduating from university she becomes a journalist covering stories about Seoul's female factory workers and she meets an idealist young teacher working with the children of the urban poor.

The prostituting of Korean women, especially young peasant women who in previous generations would have worked the land, was seen by the military as a means to earn foreign currency through sex tourism, and as a means of maintaining good relations with American servicemen based in Korea;[1] the continued presence of whom was seen as essential in deterring the North from further aggression.

The protagonist is of a class not usually the subject of sexual exploitation, and the fact that she does not take money for her services differentiates her from her unluckier sisters.

[2] During the Park Chung-hee dictatorship, film making like all other media was heavily censored to disallow open criticism of the regime.