Winter Woman 1977

Yi-hwa Chang Mi-hee is the daughter of a prosperous Christian preacher, raised to live by a strict moral code that emphasizes chastity and restraint. In high school her beauty earns her attention from many, including Yo-sub, with whom she grows close as a friend. When Yo-sub pushes for sex, she declines, and his actions culminate in his suicide.

As a university student, Yi-hwa becomes the girlfriend of Suk-gi Kim Chu-ryeon; he also desires sex, and when she refuses, he rapes her. Suk-gi later dies in a car accident, and she receives a posthumous letter from him accusing her of selfishness for withholding something she could give freely, arguing that valuing chastity has more to do with her self-worth than with the people she claims to love.

Shocked by her first sexual experience and by the two deaths that followed, she reassesses her boundaries and begins to practice selfless service in a provocative form: she becomes a sex volunteer, offering her body to men who want sex but refusing emotional attachment and money. After graduating, she shifts careers and becomes a journalist covering Seoul’s female factory workers, bearing witness to the challenges they face. In this period she encounters an idealistic young teacher who works with the urban poor; together they embody a shared ethic of giving—she provides physical relief, while he lends mental inspiration. They are described as both giving water to the thirsty. The story closes on the suggestion that Yi-hwa will continue this pattern of selfless volunteering, steadfast in her own terms and choices, as she and the teacher pursue their intertwined missions.