The novel explores the impact of social and environmental challenges on the individual’s psychology via Nhamo’s experiences as she undergoes the transition from girl to young woman. As Nhamo navigates the social dynamics of her home village, the dangers of her journey through the wilderness, and her reunion with her father’s family, she must learn to confront these various challenges to learn who she is and what she is capable of.

Nhamo’s home environment challenges her sense of self, even though her surroundings are familiar. Nhamo’s only confidante is her grandmother. Otherwise, Nhamo is an outsider and thus poses a threat to her family and community. When she hears her uncle telling a story “about [the fate of] a willful girl” (12) in Chapter 3, Nhamo gets scared. The story foreshadows the challenges Nhamo will face when the local doctor deems Nhamo a negative influence on the village community and she is forced to leave home. With the muvuki’s help, Nhamo’s family decides that the “solution to [their] problem” (61) of Goré’s wandering spirit is to give Nhamo “to the brother of Goré Mtoko as a junior wife” (62). This decision worsens Nhamo’s social circumstances: If she obeys her family, she will have to leave her home and enter a new form of entrapment.