During South Korea's Fifth Republic from 1981 to 1987, Kim Hyun Sook convinces her traditional mother that women should go to college. In 1983, Sook looks forward to immersing herself in Western literature, but she finds out that reading can be a life-or-death activity under a totalitarian regime. A young man invites Sook to a reading group, which she learns is actually a secretive group reading banned books in a basement. Sook goes on to describe how rebellious reading changed the country.