Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
The cult-counselling centre is where Seo-yeon works: a church-funded ministry in Seoul where families come when someone they love has vanished into a sect. Its researchers classify groups as heretical or predatory, interview the frightened and the recruited, and test every claim against a rubric of eleven questions that genuinely works. It was a quiet corner of church life until the year a sickness spread through a sect and the whole country wanted every gathering tested. Its caseload tripled, and its judgements have carried new weight ever since.