Summary

Hyesan is now booming with illicit trade coming over the border from China. Hyeonseo's mother makes contacts across the border and begins a business of importing and selling goods at a profit. About two years after moving back to Hyesan, she takes her daughter to a fortune teller even though they are outlawed along with all other forms of religion. The fortune teller says that Hyeonseo is clever, has a future connected with music, and "will eat foreign rice" (42). Hyeonseo's mother interprets this to mean that her daughter will live overseas and then sighs, realizing that she has wasted her money since no ordinary North Korean is allowed to travel abroad or emigrate.

A few months later, while visiting her grandmother, Hyeonseo learns the truth about her parentage. Her grandmother tells her the whole story and shows her pictures from her...