Suga ChoHee is the daughter of an important family with royal blood raised in high society to be a proper Korean lady. A typical story of forbidden love unfolds when she meets Park KyungSun, who is rising up the ranks in the Korean mafia world. He is expected to be the next leader of the gang and cannot afford to have any weaknesses. Despite a common desire to participate in the rebuilding of their beloved South Korea in the 70’s after the effects of the Korean War have settled, it is clear that KyungSun’s path cannot be intertwined with that of ChoHee’s beyond their brief moment of naive hope that new love often brings. Their affair results in an inevitable pregnancy that would clearly disgrace her family and her future, and would also leave him open for attack on his own endeavors. Thanks to the Sugas’ connection with the US embassy – Ambassador Roy Cook – whose work includes getting visas for babies who are to be adopted to US families, they are able to orchestrate a private adoption that creates a twisted path in the baby’s future and conveniently hiding her origins.
This starts Park Sun-Hee’s journey as Alisha Cook, who eventually becomes Alisha Stevenson after a traumatic and confused childhood.
It isn’t until Alisha’s daughter, Lexi, needs a bone marrow transplant that anyone must face the consequences of their actions.
Alisha’s search threatens the perfect balance of ChoHee’s chosen path to becoming a business executive, rare for a Korean female, and privileged lifestyle. It also triggers the enemies of KyungSun, who have been waiting for something to use against him to dethrone him from the head of the mafia gang he runs. Both have many reasons to protect themselves and hide the truth from being discovered that it seems as Alisha just might have to give up hope for the safety of her own family. But, then, their worlds collide when the blue-eyed monkey is seen and everything else becomes secondary.
