Class divisions are set in stark relief when two women's lives and identities are intertwined, through wars and across continents, in the early 20th century.

"Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories."
-Heather Morris, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Can't I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th century. When the daughter's suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father's Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress's place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army.

Years of hardship, survival, and even happiness follows. In the aftermath of WWII, the women make their way home, where they must reckon with the tangled lives they've led, in an attempt to reclaim their identities, and find their place in an independent Korea.