A grandmother lost her only son in a car accident. Her deceased son left her his adopted 7 year-old daughter and letters to his illiterate mother. Scared to reveal her illiteracy, she hasn’t attempted to open the letters from her son. Now, she desires to read the letters but, the only place to teach the alphabet to adult students from foreign countries is closed down as the only teacher is hospitalized. With nowhere to turn, she struggles through self-study. Dong-e, who is a 7 year-old adopted child of her son’s that he reluctantly and temporarily stays with, sees her struggle and helps her study with her books. But, Dong-e’s tutoring soon ends as she hasn’t mastered the alphabet yet herself. Now she decides to attend an elementary school in a remote town as a first grader. So it is now she who helps Dong-e with the alphabet and their awkward relationship begins to change slowly.
May 2012
