WEBTOON SUMMARY [SPOILERS!]

Baek Ah-jin is born into a nightmare disguised as a family. Her father, Baek Sun-gyu, is a violent drunk and a moral black hole; her mother, Im Sun-ye, is just as monstrous: volatile, abusive, and drunk on her own misery.

Sun-gyu eventually murders Sun-ye, pushing her down the stairs during an argument. She dies clutching Ah-jin’s leg, begging for life. Sun-gyu then shacks up with Hwang Ji-seon, a rich widow with a son, Yoon Jun-seo, and eyes full of greed.

Ah-jin, still a child, becomes a piece in their scheme: Ji-seon believes Sun-gyu’s lie that she can make a fortune through an underground child pornography ring, and allows Ah-jin to be “kept” temporarily, not out of compassion, but profit. When Ah-jin refuses to “cooperate,” Ji-seon turns violent, beating and starving her.

Eventually, Ah-jin is thrown out after middle school, discarded like trash.

Meanwhile, Jun-seo, Ji-seon’s son, grows up in wealth and confusion. His supposed father, Chairman Yoon, dies in a wheelchair, leaving Jun-seo the entire inheritance. Unbeknownst to him, his real father is Kang Ji-ho, his late father’s chauffeur: Ji-seon’s secret lover, who later emigrates abroad. The truth of this affair becomes a ticking time bomb that will later blow Jun-seo’s life apart.

Kim Jae-oh is A-jin's high school classmate, a delinquent who habitually steals and extorts money from students through lockers. However, he is caught stealing by A-jin, and when she sees Jae-oh's face covered in bruises, A-jin figures out what's going on and turns a blind eye. Feeling grateful, he becomes A-jin's ally by helping her frame Shim Seong-hee for theft. 

He came from a very poor family, suffered severe domestic violence and abuse from his father, a cultist. He attempted to escape, leaving his younger brother behind. However, when his younger brother was also abused, he murdered their father. He then sent his younger brother to his aunt and made a final phone call to A-jin, announcing his intention to turn himself in, thanking her, and then hung up. He later confessed and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Ah-jin’s father, Baek Sun-gyu, keeps resurfacing like a bad dream. He extorts money, beats her, and even ruins her future, once attacking her so brutally that she misses her university registration despite being accepted to law school. His twisted “fatherly protection” toward her isn’t love; it’s because he wants to sell her body later and doesn’t want the “product” damaged.

Ah-jin, now a legal adult with a predator’s patience, plots his death. She manipulates Choi Jung-ho, her café boss: a good man, righteous and protective, into believing her father is her stalker. When Baek Sun-gyu breaks into her home, Jung-ho attacks him in defense, thinking he’s saving her. Sun-gyu collapses.

But Jung-ho didn’t kill him. Ah-jin finishes the job herself. The skull fracture and cardiac arrest are ruled a crime of passion. Jung-ho takes the fall, unaware he’s been used as a weapon. In prison, he still worries about her.


Now, enter the second act: Ah-jin’s encounter with Yoon Jun-seo, Hwang Ji-seon’s son. He’s everything she isn’t: educated, wealthy, idealistic. They first collide during their school years: she, the damaged survivor; he, the privileged heir. Their dynamic burns with tension, fascination, and hatred.

Jun-seo sees in Ah-jin a mirror of his own suppressed rage toward his mother’s cruelty. She sees in him both a chance for love and the perfect pawn. When Jun-seo learns that his mother once helped exploit Ah-jin, guilt and desire twist inside him. They begin an intense relationship: equal parts romance and psychological warfare.

But their love is poisoned by shared trauma. Ah-jin’s obsession with revenge consumes her empathy, while Jun-seo’s growing darkness mirrors hers.

When she reveals, indirectly and cruelly, that his true father is Kang Ji-ho, the chauffeur, Jun-seo’s moral compass shatters. Ji-seon’s entire web of lies collapses: her affair, her manipulation, her past violence toward Ah-jin, and her role in Sun-gyu’s crimes all come to light. Jun-seo’s hatred of his mother becomes a weapon Ah-jin wields like a blade.


Ah-jin reinvents herself. With the help of Seo Mi-ri, a talent agency CEO, she becomes an actress: beautiful, cold, and flawless. Fame hides her rot like silk over decay.

Here enters Heo In-gang, an idol-turned-actor with tragic charm. He grew up poor, raised by his grandmother Park Yang-sook, supporting his younger brother Heo In-mo. In-gang is genuine: a rare good man in Ah-jin’s universe. Naturally, she ruins him.

She seduces him methodically: first through his grandmother, pretending to be the perfect daughter-in-law figure. They fall in love. He dreams of marriage. She dreams of leverage.

When In-gang’s grandmother dies in an accident, he collapses emotionally, and Ah-jin, now famous and heartless, abandons him. To secure her ascent, she uses a hidden camera (set up in advance with her accomplice Kim Jae-oh, who's now out of prison) to capture a moment where he slaps her during a fight. She leaks it as “abuse.” His image implodes.

Her manager Nam Cha-young, her jealous rival Im Rena, and Rena’s cousin (the journalist Im Hee-guk) all swirl around the ensuing scandal. In-gang loses everything and, crushed by depression and public hatred, commits suicide.

In-mo, the younger brother, never forgives Ah-jin. He calls her a monster on national TV, saying, “How can someone be so cruel?” Years later, he rebuilds his life, becomes a clothing CEO, and even invests in Jun-seo’s business: poetic irony that both men who loved and hated Ah-jin fund each other’s survival.

By now, Ah-jin has climbed high, too high. Her reputation is fragile, and one scandal could shatter it. Enter Moon Do-hyuk, a cold, wealthy businessman, her next target. He’s desperate for a son, infertile, and resentful toward his ex-wife Cha Yu-mi, whom he blamed for repeated miscarriages (though he was the real cause).

Ah-jin seduces him, drugs him, and then secretly sleeps with Jun-seo to conceive his child, planning to pass it off as Do-hyuk’s and marry into his fortune. It’s classic Ah-jin: cruelty disguised as brilliance.

But Do-hyuk isn’t stupid. He orders a DNA test and instantly spots the forgery; the “doctor” and secretary who falsified the results were her co-conspirators. He plays along, letting her think she’s winning, until he drops the mask: “Did you really think a paper scrap could fool me?”

He proposes marriage anyway, telling her she’s a rare kind of woman: ruthless, calculating, interesting.
For a while, she plays the perfect fiancée. Then the past catches up.

Jun-seo, now an author, produces “Dim Heart”, a novel-turned-documentary exposing her crimes: the lies, manipulation, murder, and emotional carnage left in her wake. The world turns on her. Do-hyuk publicly cancels the wedding, sues her for damages, and replaces her as his company’s model.

Ah-jin, once the spider at the center of every web, is finally caught in her own threads.


After her fall, Ah-jin flees to Hong Kong with Kim Jae-oh. There, she gives birth to Jun-seo’schlid. She never planned to keep the baby, but somewhere in the wreckage of her life, something human flickers. Jae-oh become the legal father of A-jin and Jun-seo's daughter. He is in a similar situation to Chairman Yoon, who was Jun-seo's adoptive father.

Ah-jin’s life twists again when a wealthy man enters her orbit. She elopes with him, leaving her daughter with Jae-oh. The man had a daughter with his late wife, who pushed her down the stairs. It leaves her face ruined, leaving her unable to even meet her reflection.

Broken but unbowed, she calls Jae-oh in Korea, desperate to see the child they share, a living echo of herself. Using a forged passport and a face no one would recognize, she returns to Korea.

She doesn’t seek a reunion born of love alone; she is strategic, wielding her daughter like a chess piece in the lingering war with Jun-seo, the man who destroyed her life. She sends him a letter: never reveal the truth of her parentage. He must live in ignorance, a subtle punishment etched into the life of their child.

Jun-seo, who's now a public figure, is at a fan signing. A little girl approaches him, bright-eyed, curious. When he asks her name, she smiles: “My mom’s name is Baek Ah-jin.” Jun-seo freezes, time and guilt crashing down on him.

Outside, Ah-jin, once the devil in designer heels, now in plain clothes, walks hand in hand with her daughter. 

 Moonbeam:

hmmm very interesting (although very “theatrically” dramatic too), I hope that (if they’re going to keep the story similar to the original webtoon, but based on the characters names in the cast list, they are going to do it) they will not show female leads way of thinking and her actions in a positive light whatsoever, since (based on what I just read here) she wasn’t a good person for a long time (the world, other people made her like that, but still). 

Thanks for the summary. 

Yeah, totally agree. She’s such a complex character, but definitely not someone to glorify. Glad you found the summary interesting! 💫

 Kannadin:

Also I don't understand why Do Hyuk would flee with her when he basically contributed to her downfall by ditching her once the truth got out. Also in that case, if he decided to flee with her, why didn't he become the legal father of Jun Seo's daughter instead of Jae O? It doesn't make sense to me.

Omg oops, that’s actually my bad 😭Do-hyuk didn't flee with her, only Jae-oh. He completely abandoned her after suing her. Classic me leaving little chaos crumbs everywhere 🙈 Thanks for catching that!

 Kannadin:

Did she ever love any of the men who supported her in the first place?

She never loved anyone. I didn't mention in summary earlier since I thought it's not that of a big thing, but in Hong Kong, A-jin elope with a rich man, leaving her daughter with Jae-oh. They too go separate ways after rich man's daughter pushes her down the stairs. Her face is so ruined that she don't even want to look at the mirror. Then she call Jae-oh (he's in Korea) that she wanted to see her daughter as they were splitting image of each other. So then with her face and fake passport, she come back to Korea and reunite with her daughter and Jae-oh.

So even at the end, A-jin is still being her.

I think he’s codependent, obsessive, and masochistic in the emotional sense. Anyone with a functioning sense of self-preservation or morality would keep a safe distance, but he allows himself to be drawn into her chaos, knowing full well the danger and pain she brings.

I think what he feels is not a healthy attachment but a combination of fixation, emotional addiction, and maybe a warped sense of loyalty rooted in shared trauma. He is choosing to be hurt and manipulated, and his decisions show a dangerous tolerance for toxicity. His taking responsibility for the child might seem paternalistic, but in reality it is entwined with his inability to separate himself from the source of danger: the mother of the child.

Baek Ah-jin shows no genuine maternal instinct. Her decisions demonstrate utter self-interest and moral corruption. She is incapable of prioritizing the child’s well-being over her own desires, and she repeatedly proves that she will exploit or endanger anyone, even her own family, to serve her goals.

 Cora:

I think he’s codependent, obsessive, and masochistic in the emotional sense. Anyone with a functioning sense of self-preservation or morality would keep a safe distance, but he allows himself to be drawn into her chaos, knowing full well the danger and pain she brings.

I think what he feels is not a healthy attachment but a combination of fixation, emotional addiction, and maybe a warped sense of loyalty rooted in shared trauma. He is choosing to be hurt and manipulated, and his decisions show a dangerous tolerance for toxicity. His taking responsibility for the child might seem paternalistic, but in reality it is entwined with his inability to separate himself from the source of danger: the mother of the child.

Baek Ah-jin shows no genuine maternal instinct. Her decisions demonstrate utter self-interest and moral corruption. She is incapable of prioritizing the child’s well-being over her own desires, and she repeatedly proves that she will exploit or endanger anyone, even her own family, to serve her goals.

Thank you for this detailed analysis! Took a while to see your answer because since you didn't quote me, so I wasn't notified.

Well, this manhwa is an interesting character study. I feel sorry for him... But I mostly feel sorry for her daughter. To some degree, I also feel sorry for A-Jin. While what happened to her when she was young wasn't her fault, she is now basically now living in a hell of her own making. Of course, she hurt too many people for me to truly feel sorry for her... But still, it must be hell living this way.

 ponnu:

Why did jun seo turn against ajin?

because she sleeps with him only to use their child for her material purpose (to marry Do-hyuk)

(and wow you got a blue star! what does this mean?)

So she faces no legal consequences for her actions? and the one who does the right thing is punished for speaking the truth? I think I will pass. Love the drams so far but it mirror reality a bit too much were the good and innocent suffer and those that bring about their miserty get to walk away.

 ponnu:

Why did she choose to sleep with jun seo and not jae o? The latter seems to have to problem being used by her and seems to be much more blindly in love with her than jun seo. He might not have exposed her like jun seo.

Because he was always by her side and somewhere she feels more comfortable with him, so without second thought the lingering feeling made her do that.