The novel opens with a fragmented, first-person statement from an unknown narrator: “I am learning to speak. To give myself a way out. A way in” (1). The reader knows nothing about the speaker or the context—it is a disembodied declaration having to do with speech and escape.  

The reader is introduced to Jade Butler, the first-person speaker and narrator of the novel. Jade is just beginning her junior year at St. Francis High, a private school in Portland, Oregon. One of the first facts the reader learns about Jade is that she is studying the Spanish language: “When I learned the Spanish word for succeed, I thought it was kind of ironic that the word exit is embedded in it” (2). St. Francis is one of the best private schools in Portland, and Jade is only able to attend with the support of a full scholarship. St. Francis is located in a different part of Portland from where Jade lives, and she must take a long bus ride to school.

Unlike her classmates at St. Francis—who, for the most part, are wealthy and white—Jade is African American and her mother struggles to provide for her and her family on a meager salary.