Pan mae mam yn caniatáu i’w merch 30-rhywbeth symud i’w fflat, mae hi eisiau iddi hi yr hyn y mae llawer o famau eisiau ar gyfer eu plentyn: incwm cyson, gŵr da gyda swydd dda, gyda phwy i ddechrau teulu. Ond pan mae Green yn troi i fyny gyda’i chariad, Lane, mae ei mam yn amharod i groesawu Lane i’w chartref.

Ar ôl canoli ei bywyd ar ei gŵr a’i phlentyn, nid yw diffiniad ei merch o deulu yn un y gall ei dderbyn. Mae achos mae ei merch ym ymwneud ag o ddiswyddo annheg yn ymwneud â chydweithwyr hoyw o’r brifysgol lle mae’n gweithio yr un mor ddieithr iddi. Ac eto pan fo’r cartref gofal lle mae’n gweithio yn mynnu ei bod yn gostwng ei safon gofal ar gyfer claf dementia oedrannus nad oes ganddo deulu, a deithiodd y byd fel diplomydd llwyddiannus, a ddewisodd beidio â chael plant, ni all mam Green ei dderbyn.

Pam na ddylai dewis bywyd traddodiadol olygu nad yw eich bywyd yn werth dim o gwbl? Yn Concerning My Daughter, a gyfieithwyd o’r Corea gan Jamie Chang, mae Kim Hye-jin yn noethi ein hofnau mwyaf cyffredinol ar heneiddio, marwolaeth ac unigedd, i gynnig paean o’r diwedd i gariad yn ei holl ffurfiau.

When a mother allows her thirty-something daughter to move into her apartment, she wants for her what many mothers might say they want for their child: a steady income, and, even better, a good husband with a good job with whom to start a family. But when Green turns up with her girlfriend, Lane, in tow, her mother is unprepared and unwilling to welcome Lane into her home. In fact, she can barely bring herself to be civil.

Having centred her life on her husband and child, her daughter’s definition of family is not one she can accept. Her daughter’s involvement in a case of unfair dismissal involving gay colleagues from the university where she works is similarly strange to her. And yet when the care home where she works insists that she lower her standard of care for an elderly dementia patient who has no family, who travelled the world as a successful diplomat, who chose not to have children, Green’s mother cannot accept it.

Why should not having chosen a traditional life mean that your life is worth nothing at all? In Concerning My Daughter, translated from Korean by Jamie Chang, Kim Hye-jin lays bare our most universal fears on ageing, death, and isolation, to offer finally a paean to love in all its forms.