“The rules of engagement have changed already.” So begins the story of John and Helen Koh and their three children Bo, DH, and Mido. Through years of careful discipline, elite education, and self-sacrifice, John and Helen have reached relative financial security when their lives are upended: first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, and then by Asia’s IMF Crisis. Desperately striving to regain their footing, they move to Sydney and eventually to Southern California—where the children encounter new opportunities as their parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a new home where old wisdom and rules of achievement no longer apply. 
 
From 1992 – 2008, and from Seoul to Sydney to Orange County and back, the Kohs, their friends, relatives, and foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they travel through the decades, nurturing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to lasting success and security. But what happens if that fails to be true? How can we keep apace with the quicksand of modern life—and what do we owe one another in the name of love? 

Coming September 29, 2026