A book about self-discovery at thirty years old, it is a simple story about a woman who quits an unsatisfying job as a junior TV screenwriter, joins a ceramics studio, and slowly rediscovers her buried ambitions to become a novelist.
The novel opens with the protagonist, Jung Min, moving to a small suburb of Ilsan called the Chestnut Thorn Village. She puts down a two-year long-term deposit on an apartment1, quits her job, and becomes a complete recluse, refusing to leave her apartment at all. After a year of living as a hikikomori, she ventures out for the first time and decides to look for a coffeeshop. She stumbles into a ceramics studio by mistake instead, where she meets the owner and head teacher, Jo Hee, who invites her to have coffee with them and to join the studio as a student.
Jung Min is strangely drawn to the ceramics studio, SOYO, and decides to join, attending pottery classes twice a week. There, she meets a steady group of regulars who become her closest circle of friends. There is Jo Hee, the outgoing studio owner who bakes pastries and treats daily for her students. Gi Shik, the thirty-three-year-old man who plans to quit his job and open a ceramics studio of his own. Jun, the surly high school senior who is preparing to apply to university as a ceramics major. Ji Hye, the regular who can be found at the studio every single day. There are also two elementary school-aged students who attend regularly: Han Sol, a talkative boy, and Ye Ri, who takes care of a local stray cat named Hoya and who seems much older than her age. There is also a supporting cast of secondary characters who are fans and supporters of the studio, including Hyo Seok, an old friend of Ji Hye’s who runs a ceramics program for disabled persons at the studio twice a week, and Souta, a friend of Jo Hee’s who introduced her to her late husband.
This group of characters slowly draw Jung Min out of her shell, restoring her confidence and giving her the courage to work through her underlying issues of guilt and self-induced psychological punishment. She learns to forgive herself for the wrongs she’s done to herself, and to ask forgiveness of others whom she’s wronged. She also ends up falling in love with Gi Shik through their time spent together at SOYO,
learning how to support one another as they share stories about the mistakes they’ve made and the missteps they’ve taken.
When Jo Hee finds out that Jung Min was a writer for TV, she asks her to take over the studio’s Instagram account to write catchy captions that could build a better following. At first, Jung Min is hesitant, full of doubt about her ability to produce high-quality writing, but she develops a knack for shaping an emotional narrative around SOYO-produced ceramic pieces that significantly boost the account’s following. Jung Min is surprised and happy to find that her writing has traction and is even offered a book deal by a publishing house: the publisher offers to print a collection of essays written in the same voice as the Instagram account.
At this point in the novel, however, Jung Min realizes that the summer, fall, and winter she has spent at SOYO have given her the self-confidence and self-esteem to follow her own path. She rejects the publishing deal, saying she wants to write a novel instead, and decides to follow Gi Shik to Goseong, a small ocean town by the East Sea where he plans to open his own studio.