The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

Lee wakes up in a hospital. Her head has been smashed with a bottle and she’s received ten stitches. She suspects the attack is connected to her informer, and that there’s been trouble for the informer when the police determined the lead was false. When she returns to work, Lee is distrustful, misses her family, and no longer enjoys her job. She develops a plan to find her family in North Korea, which involves using two sets of brokers: one procured through Mr. Ahn, and one procured through a Korean-Chinese restaurant patron. She will then travel to Changbai. 

When Lee arrives in Changbai, Mrs. Ahn is frail and Mr. Ahn is bedridden. Mr. Ahn had been caught smuggling and had been beaten by guards. Mr. Chang had been convicted of selling North Korean women as brides and prostitutes, and is in prison. Lee arranges for a broker to find her family and return to her apartment in Shenyang. In a few weeks, she receives word that the broker has located her family and Min-ho has crossed the river into China. Lee’s overjoyed; she hadn’t known if they were alive, and now she is to reunite with them.