Park recounts her oppressive childhood in North Korea, starved and without electricity. She remembers how the lights of neighboring countries gave her hope for a better life. She spares no detail when explaining what a society under a ruthless dictator, mass killings, and delusional propaganda looks like.

Yeonmi takes us through her harrowing journey being smuggled out of North Korea only to meet a new terrifying reality - the Chinese sex trafficking trade. Park speaks frankly about the realities of survival in captivity and the pain she carries with her still today. We wrap up with her rescue by missionaries and her first brush with freedom in Times Square. Yeonmi illuminates some hard truths and warns of the signs of communism seeping into the United States.