There is a 1995 movie by the same name and same storyline but the characters are Japanese, instead of Korean. There is mention, in the current novel, that payment and boats left from Japan, but it is hard to believe that this is one and the same story. However, I researched it and according to Wikipedia, immigrant workers from Japan, Okinawa and Korea, who were living in Hawaii, West Coast United States of America and Canada, selected brides from their native countries through a matchmaker. No different from the French king sending Files du Roi, or young women, to marry men in Canada between 1663-1673. What is interesting, and I'm not sure it is mentioned in this book, is that in 1907, the US government created the "Gentlemen's Agreement," which prohibited immigration from Hawaii to the mainland of the United States for labourers. Many people went back to Japan, but those who couldn't afford it, had to make Hawaii their permanent home (I'd like it!), and decided to find a wife. Sounds like the basis to this book, except that the "husband" didn't really want a "wife," and the matchmaker lied.