Five kids survived a residential school. Adulthood is the second war.
Who drives the story
Taken from his family at age five and discharged from the school at sixteen with a one-way bus ticket and twenty dollars, he arrives in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside with no one waiting. He becomes the thread that pulls the five back together, building the family the school denied them.
She endures sexual abuse from Father Palan and learns to dissociate, imagining herself floating above her body. She works as a waitress and later testifies at a government hearing, where her words become the book's rallying cry.
Punished for speaking Cree, she vows never to forget her language. She attends a healing circle at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre and returns to the school grounds to reclaim them.
Beaten by Brother Thomas for wetting his bed, he internalizes the shame. He is incarcerated, uses heroin, overdoses, and after five years sober works as a peer counselor.
Her doll is confiscated by a nun. She is treated as a servant in a foster home, runs away, and gives birth to a daughter, Grace, vowing to break the cycle of displacement.
Go deeper
Cultural genocide by design · Intergenerational trauma · Found family · Reclamation
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
Open the summary