A Time of Water is a novel that reinterprets the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, the last empress of Joseon Kingdom, through the motif of time. The author overlaps the death of Myeongseong, the individual, with the death of an era, within the theme of time. The stopping of the water clock in the story symbolizes the stopping of time itself.

The story of A Time of Water revolves around Bongcheol, a soldier who has filled the water clock with water for decades, as well as check the hours and play the drum to announce the hour of paru, indicating the end of curfew. Within the royal palace, however, controversy is rife as to the precision of the hour. Bongcheol, who yearns deeply for the empress in his heart, plays the drum for her. The empress, who has heard the sound of the drum for decades, knows through her physical senses that the hour is correct. Because of complains by a Japanese consulate staff, however, Bongcheol is taken to high court for trial.

Bongcheol’s love for the empress makes up a core part of the novel; the love, however, is not depicted as that of secular passion. The love described here is not only the love between a man and a woman, but also the sympathy and compassion of those who must keep silent. In her last moments of life, the empress comes to know that the name of the soldier who plays the drum for the hour of paru is Bongcheol, a boy she met when she was a girl.