She starts a relationship with a local boy, but after he leaves for America, Shell discovers that she's pregnant. Knowing nothing about having a baby, and with no adult to guide her, she is left to do the best she can on her own. But when she finally gives birth (in a harrowing scene, on the kitchen floor and aided only by her young siblings) to a stillborn baby, her problems have only begun.

In the last third of the book, it turns into a mystery. While the reader will have figured it out long before anyone in the book does, it's still a thriller. But throughout the book, there is one small hero who is almost overlooked: Shell's stalwart 9-year-old brother, Jimmy, who's the first to figure out that she's pregnant. His chipper and unobtrusive caring is one of the little touches that elevate what could have been a tale of unrelenting misery into something else, something hopeful ... and pure.