The Hanji Box

Hannah, a recently divorced art historian, has decided to downsize. She is selling the house in the country that she has lived in for 18 years. Her daughter Rose-adopted from Korea many years ago-- is helping her pack up the house. But Rose, to her mother's dismay, resists cleaning out her own room, despite the fact that she left the house and moved in with her boyfriend 6 months ago. The tension between mother and daughter escalates until finally, an item of great importance to both of them gets broken: Rose's Hanji box-made from traditional Korean paper-- that Hannah and her husband had bought for Rose years ago in Koreatown. Or did they? Rose claims to have brought it with her from Korea-a gift from her biological birth mother. Determined to prove Rose wrong, and to fix the box, Hannah takes the train to Koreatown to find the store where she bought the box. By mistake, she stumbles into an art gallery, where preparations are being made for an exhibition of evocative and mysterious paintings. She meets the painter, and he invites her to return that evening for the opening of the exhibit. So begins a journey of cultural discovery, aesthetic exploration, interpersonal connections and adoption-her own.