Note: Each part begins with excerpts of various lengths from works by eminent poets. They connect with the novel’s overarching themes, so they won’t receive an analysis or quotation of their own in the guide.

Amy Harper Bellafonte’s mother, Jeanette, is 19 when Amy is born. Jeanette met Bill Reynolds, Amy’s father, at a diner while working. Bill was married, but he impregnated Jeanette during a fling. Amy is three years old when Bill returns after leaving his wife. He is abusive and lazy. Jeanette kicks him out after he hits her too many times.

Jeanette leaves Amy alone at night while Jeanette works. A coworker tattles on her and Jeanette is fired. In Dubuque, she gets fired from a gas station after letting Amy sleep in the back room. Soon, Jeanette works as a sex worker, usually in a hotel, where the owner sells her a gun. A young man takes her to a frat house. After a struggle, Jeanette shoots him rather than serve his friends. She leaves the gun, gets Amy, and rides a bus to a convent, where Lacey, a young nun from Sierra Leone, answers the door. Jeanette leaves a note in Amy’s backpack, leaves under the pretense of car repairs, and never returns.