Pink Shoes is based on the real-life experiences of the author's mother and grandmom tells of the ardent love of the Korean woman Junju and the Japanese man Douru . Set against the turmoil of the days from the Japanese colonial era until the immediate aftermath of World War II. At nineteen, Junju, the granddaughter of a millionaire from Chosun, goes to Tokyo to study to become an obstetrician. Aboard the ferry that will take her across the Korea Strait, Junju redoubles her determination. She crosses to meet her brother, Jinseok, an independence activist studying abroad in Japan but does not expect to met Douru, a Japanese architecture student studying at the same university as Junju, who falls in love with her. The cast of characters in The Pink Shoes also includes Sachi , Junju's home town friend who has become a famous singer in Japanese; Hyun, the son of Junju's nanny and an entrepreneur; and Mori, a Japanese detective investigating Jinseok. Yanghee's affectionate and delicate attention to all the characters and their tangled connections to each other are on display in Pink Shoes.