A moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood.

So-nyo is a wife and mother to five grown-up children. She is the one constant - and often unacknowledged - presence in all of their lives, supporting them no matter what the cost. Then one day, travelling into Seoul by train, So-nyo vanishes.

Whilst her family desperately search for her, they discover the desires and hopes So-nyo kept hidden. Through a series of revelations the family members slowly paint a picture of So-nyo as they never knew her and come to realise the truth about all mothers and children - that affection, exasperation, hope and guilt add up to love.

Shin's prose, intimate and hauntingly spare, powerfully conveys grief's bewildering immediacy... a raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood.