Inheritance

Anne Kim, a tax lawyer at the prestigious Manhattan firm Warren & Sterling, learns that her father, Young, has died from a sudden stroke in 2014 while driving home from visiting her older brother, Charles, at a rehabilitation center in Edmonton, Alberta. Anne flies from New York to Edmonton for the funeral, where her interaction with Charles is immediately tense; she questions his expensive sneakers, and he asks her for money. At the funeral home, their mother tenderly clips her husband's nails, weeping that she had promised to do this but never found the time. Elderly Korean guests praise Anne's accomplishments, all intimately aware of her education and career.

Anne reconnects with Mrs. Yoon, the mother of her childhood friend Yura Yoon, and learns that Yura's life has unraveled: She married, divorced, left her son with his father, and now works as a dancer on a cruise ship. When Charles disappears from the gathering, Anne finds him alone behind the garden shed, where he mentions "that last night in Crow Plains," a subject they have never discussed. That evening, their father's sister, Gomo, an English teacher from Seoul, reveals that their father was originally from North Korea. During the Korean War, Anne's father told his youngest brother, Maknae, to stay behind with their father to care for the family's animals. They expected to be separated only months, but the Korean peninsula was permanently divided, and their father never saw Maknae again. Anne is shaken that her father never shared this history; her hurt deepens when Charles reveals their father mentioned Maknae to him during a rehab visit. Gomo gives Anne a stack of sealed letters their father wrote to Maknae over the years, sent to their grandmother's house in hopes that Maknae would one day return to read them.

Anne cannot read the letters because she is no longer fluent in Korean, and her mother refuses to translate, insisting the past should be forgotten. Anne's boyfriend, Richard, locates Dr. Hugh MacDonald, a university professor in Edmonton, who translates them. The letters trace her father's immigrant arc: his early wonder at Canada's big houses and green grass, followed by the reality of her mother working as a janitor and her father failing job interviews due to limited English. The letters trigger Anne's memories of a home where the family spoke only Korean and her father described Korea as their "true home." She remembers her first day of school, when a teacher derived the name "Anne" from her Korean name Eun-ah, and the isolation that followed: classmates mocking her Korean food and Charles defending her with a stick. In the late 1980s, Anne's father befriends the Yoon family. Their daughter, Yura, two years older than Anne, becomes her most formative influence, teaching her to navigate white social circles and sharing her belief that their gift of belonging "neither here nor there" lets them decide for themselves what is right and wrong. Yura shows Anne a silver eunjangdo, a traditional Korean knife with etched chrysanthemums that noblewomen once carried to take their own lives if dishonored. When Anne, who owns nothing from Korea, asks for the knife, Yura agrees. Anne fashions it into a necklace pendant. After Mrs. Yoon discovers Yura's secret relationship with a white boy and sends her to boarding school, Anne's mother warns Anne never to bring a white boy home.

In 1991, Anne's father borrows money at an exploitative interest rate from a wealthy distant relation to buy a grocery store in Crow Plains, a small Ukrainian farming community. No townspeople shop there, choosing the competing Stanley's Grocery instead. Chief Jim from the nearby Vernet reserve befriends Anne's father and sends his community to the store, and fellow Korean grocers advise the family to apply for a liquor license. Business improves, though a loyal customer named Edna notes that children in Vernet are eating less since the store began selling alcohol. At school, Anne befriends Meredith Sweeney, the most popular girl, while deliberately distancing herself from Euphemia Wong, the only other Asian girl in town. Meredith pressures Anne to fail tests to prove she is "chill," and Anne complies until her mother discovers a poor grade. When boys rank the girls by beauty and place Anne last, one mockingly kisses her cheek and shouts "Alien germs, no return!" Anne resolves that if she cannot be beautiful, she will be smart.

Anne's father pushes Charles relentlessly toward academic excellence. When Charles disobeys, he is beaten; after one transgression, his father forces him outside in wet clothes during freezing temperatures, causing hypothermia and frostbite. A visit from Mr. Hong, a wealthy Korean executive who holds the corporate position Anne's father gave up when he emigrated, highlights what the family sacrificed. Mr. Hong gives each child 1,000 dollars, and Charles convinces Anne to pool their money for a computer. He builds a website selling rare comic books and earns nearly 1,000 dollars. But when his modem ties up the phone line, his father loses a major food supply account to the competing store. Discovering the computer, Anne's father destroys the monitor with a hammer. Charles calls his father a failure; his father disowns him and throws him out.

Charles's departure devastates the family. Anne's mother stops eating and wanders through snow-covered fields. Anne salvages the computer's intact components and uses Charles's coding notes to create a science fair presentation about the internet, submitting his ideas as her own and winning third place at the provincial fair. Her teacher, Mrs. Reeves, arranges for an Edmonton gallery to exhibit Anne's portraits of her parents, but Anne declines, knowing her parents would see the vulnerable portraits as betrayal. When Mrs. Reeves confronts her, Anne replies, "You don't need to give me career advice. I'm not your daughter," and immediately regrets the words. Charles returns home but secretly plans to flee to San Francisco for a startup job. Anne follows him to the local arcade to convince him to stay. Outside, Jeff, Stanley's son, attacks Charles with a racial slur and charges at him with a cement block. Charles, scrambling on the ground, stabs Jeff with a knife.

In 2014, Charles tells Anne that his girlfriend, Mina, is pregnant and asks Anne to review his court records. Anne realizes Charles voluntarily pled guilty to manslaughter, but his lawyer should have argued self-defense based on Jeff's attack with the cement block. The lawyer later died of Huntington's disease, raising the possibility that he was already declining when he handled the case, and Jeff's uncle, the sole Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer on scene, may have omitted the cement block from his report. Anne confesses to Charles that she must have thrown him the eunjangdo during the fight, a memory she blocked for decades to protect herself. She also admits she stole his computer work for the science fair, admissions that reveal the fraudulent foundation of her career. Charles accepts her apology, saying the past cannot be changed. Anne decides not to tell him his sentence was unjust, fearing it would destroy whatever resolve he has left.

Anne's friend Cathy, a Korean American architect, sleeps with Richard after a drunken dinner. When Richard confesses, Anne tells him she is leaving New York. He flies to Edmonton to apologize, but Anne is firm, explaining she needs to confront unresolved guilt. Their final goodbye is a handshake. By 2015, Anne has been living at her mother's house for six months, taking an online documentary filmmaking course. Charles, sober since learning of Mina's pregnancy, studies for a computer certification. Anne's mother has blossomed in widowhood, taking up ballroom dancing and beginning a companionship with a fellow widower. She reveals that a contact in Seoul may have found Maknae, showing Anne a photo of an elderly man who resembles Charles. Mina gives birth to a daughter, Sasha, and Charles declares his daughter is "free from the past." Anne gives Charles her inheritance from the Crow Plains land sale for Sasha's college fund. She receives a job offer from a Calgary accounting firm but remains torn between financial security and creative pursuits. Anne's mother finally agrees to be filmed for a documentary class project, and Anne presses record: "Tell me everything. Tell me all your stories."