BRILLIANT LEGACY
While studying culinary arts instead of business in New York, Eun-seong is unexpectedly called back to Korea by her father just after finishing the first two years of her studies. In the meantime, Sun-woo Hwan’s grandmother orders him to return to Korea after studying abroad for three years, in which he hardly studied at all. By mistake, Eun-seong and Sun-woo Hwan’s luggage are swapped at the airport. Koh Pyeong-jung, Eun-seong’s father, struggles to save his company from filing for bankruptcy.
One day, a thief steals Koh’s wallet along with his ID and credit cards. The thief subsequently dies in a gas explosion accident. Upon finding Koh Pyeong-jung’s wallet on the dead body, the police mistakenly identify the body of the man as Koh. Koh decides to keep a low profile and not tell his family that he is alive in order to keep the creditors at bay for the time being. Eun-seong’s stepmother collects the money from her husband’s life insurance policy, moves to a new home with her daughter Seung-mi and kicks out Eun-seong and her brother Eunwoo from their home.
While Eun-seong moves in with In-young, her best friend, she asks for help from her ex-boyfriend, Hyung-jin, who turns her down. Her brother, Eun-woo, has an intellectual disability but has a passion for playing the piano. One day, Eun-woo ventures out looking for a piano to play and disappears. While searching for her brother, Eun-seong works as a waitress at a nightclub and meets Joon-sae, a friend of her ex-boyfriend. Joon-sae helps Eun-seong as much as he can. A year later, Eun-seong is still looking for her brother and decides to transfer to a Korean college. She quits her waitressing job and starts selling dumplings to make enough money to pay for her tuition.
Meanwhile, Jang Sook-ja, the founder of a food company, becomes deeply disappointed in her grandson Hwan who has no direction in his life. To gather her thoughts on what to do about her grandson, she visits her old neighborhood in the poor section of the city, where she encounters Eun-seong selling dumplings. She hears about Eun-seong’s hardships and immediately sees that Eun-seong is an honest, hardworking person, with a heart of gold. To test Eun-seong’s mettle, she moves in with her for a month, sharing a tiny room. Afterwards, Jang Sook-ja makes up her mind to appoint Eun-seong as the heir of her food company and brings her home.