The Grims Company, a powerful health and biotech corporation based in South Korea, had long since reached the limits of its testing within the country. Bound by regulations, they sought freer grounds and so, a private laboratory was built just outside the family estate. It was then that Hyeseol's father made a decision no parent should ever make. He handed her over to them, his own daughter, offering her up as a subject for experimentation.

He had always resented the fact that Africa, where her mother was born, was plagued by racism. To him, white skin wasn’t just privilege—it was protection. And he wanted Hyeseol to have it. He wanted her to be white, like him.