When twenty-year-old Anna Carlson travels from America to a Korean orphanage to locate her birth mother, she's devastated to learn the woman is already dead. But just when it seems her search is over, a stranger hands her a parcel containing an antique comb--and an address.

That scrap of paper leads Anna to the Seoul apartment of the poor yet elegant Hong Jae-hee. Jae-hee recounts an epic tale that begins with the Japanese occupation of Korea and China during World War II, when more than two hundred thousand Korean women were forced to serve the soldiers as "comfort women." Jae-hee knows the story well--she was one of them.

As Jae-hee's narrative unfolds, Anna discovers that the precious tortoiseshell comb, with its two-headed ivory dragon, has survived against all odds through generations of her family's women. And as its origins become clearer, Anna realizes that along with the comb, she inherits a legacy--of resilience and courage, love and redemption--beyond her wildest imagination.