The novel illustrates that survival and resilience are challenging, particularly during wartime. Miriam and her family struggle to survive after they are kidnapped by Abenaki warriors and marched to St. Francis. Miriam has heard of the horrors done to English captives by the French and by the Indigenous people, but she finds that neither the Abenaki nor the French are what she expected. Through Miriam’s attempt to survive first her capture by the Abenaki and then her imprisonment by the French in Montreal, she becomes a more resilient young woman. The ways that Miriam must survive change when her captors change, but her resilience builds through her journey.

Although Miriam faces real threats to her survival following her capture, her own biases make the experience even more traumatic. Miriam is terrified of the Abenaki warriors at first: “Glancing up at their paint-streaked faces, Miriam could see no sign at all of any mercy” (20). Her culture has raised her in extreme bigotry, and it is not until she has first-hand experience that she understands the reality. Miriam experiences physical hardship, particularly on the march from her home to St. Francis, but the hardship she experiences is shared by the Abenaki warriors.