Arn is the novel’s protagonist and the character from whose perspective we experience the events of the novel. The novel is based on the true story of his life during the Cambodian Genocide. Arn starts out as an average eleven-year-old who has fun playing with his friends and hustling rich kids for money. At first, when his family is forcibly removed from their home by the Khmer Rouge, Arn is confused and afraid. After several months in the work camps, though, he learns how to survive. This creates a conflict in Arn about the price of survival that grows throughout the novel; in helping his friends survive the camps, he must routinely prioritize some lives over others, and carry out the horrifying orders of the Khmer Rouge or risk being killed himself. Arn’s social skills are key to his survival: he learns to take calculated risks and uses his wits to quickly assess the people and situations around him.

Surviving the war and genocide places an incredible emotional burden on Arn, who is only fifteen when the American activist Peter Pond rescues him from the Thai refugee camp. Arn feels guilty both for his actions during the war and that he was rescued when so many others were left behind.