Fourteen-year-old Munoo, an orphan, happily plays with his school friends amid the natural splendor of the Kangra Valley in northern India near the foothills of the Himalayas. With his friends, a carefree Munoo chases cows and water buffalo in the swampy grass and then happily munches fruit the children swipe from the neighbor’s orchards. Munoo’s aunt and uncle have raised Munoo since his father died a “slow death of bitterness and disappointment” after the bank foreclosed on the small family farm (3). Within months his mother collapsed from exhaustion and died on the floor of a grinding plant where she was working 12-hour days.

Even as he plays with his friends, Munoo is sad. He knows he is to leave today. His uncle told him the couple could no longer afford to keep Munoo and that it is time for him to earn his way. The plan is that the uncle will walk Munoo the 10 miles to the town where Munoo has been indentured to the family of a low-level bank executive as a house servant.

When the following day Munoo, his feet aching, arrives in the town, he is amazed at the sights and sounds.