The memoir opens on March 31, 2007, on the treacherous riverbanks of the frozen Yalu river. Yeonmi and her mother are guided in the dark by their North Korean brokers to escape to Chaingbai, China. Their motivation is to find Yeonmi’s missing older sister, Eunmi, and to escape the extreme poverty of their hometown, Hyesan. However, as soon as they make it to the other side, her mother is dragged off screaming by a man, and mother and daughter soon realize they have become victims of human trafficking.

Park describes North Korea as the “Hermit Kingdom” because it attempts to keep its people from knowing the outside world while also preventing the international world from peering inside. As a result, people seldom know about life inside North Korea’s borders. Park has publicly told the story of her escape many times but could not open up about the darkest aspects of her own victimhood. A quote from author Joan Didion pushed Park toward penning her memoir: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live” (14). Park feels her experience in China has made her lose part of her humanity, but in authoring her memoir, she has structured her world and found dignity again.