Her letters are read by censors and she must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but also from her colleagues, evangelical Christian missionaries, whose faith she does not share. As the weeks pass she discovers how easily her students lie, and how total is their obedience to Kim Jong-il.

Suki Kim recounts her life in North Korea. In 2011 all universities in the country were shut down, apart from the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Kim taught English there, struggling to teach her young charges to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime. A rare insight into a secretive totalitarian nation.