The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga. A Girl is a Body of Water. Tin House, 2020. Kindle.

The story is told in the third-person past tense by a narrator who focuses almost exclusively to Kirabo, a 12-year-old girl living in the small country village Nattetta in Uganda in 1975. The novel is divided into five sections. In “The Witch,” Kirabo lived with her grandparents, Miiro and Alikisa, because her mother had abandoned her as an infant and her father, Tom, lived in the city where he worked. Miiro was one of the wealthiest men in the village, and he favored Kirabo. Both of her grandparents were heavily invested with the village’s schools, so they constantly had groups of children and teenagers moving in with them from other villages in order to attend school full time. Kirabo liked to tell stories to the older teenagers. She thought she was a witch because she had an evil self and a good self, and the evil self flew out of her body at times. Alikisa’s mortal enemy was a witch named Nsuuta. Kirabo was not entirely sure why the two women hated one another, but Kirabo knew it had something to do with Tom. Kirabo snuck out to see Nsuuta and ask about her mother and advice on her evil self. Nsuuta told her that women had been persecuted for centuries because they were associated with the water. She told Kirabo that she had “original state” inside her and begged her not to get rid of it. She also told her that her mother was finishing college and had married another man. She could not tell him about Kirabo without destroying her whole life, so Kirabo had to wait before reuniting with her. Kirabo’s best friend was a poor girl named Giibwa whose family worked as laborers for Miiro. Giibwa was beautiful and kind. Although the two girls fought, they loved one another like sisters. Kirabo continued visiting Nsuuta until her grandmother found out. Kirabo overheard villagers implying that Nsuuta and Alikisa had both been in love with Miiro. They fought over him and Alikisa injured Nsuuta, causing her to have a miscarriage. The villagers also implied that Tom was Nsuuta’s son.

In “The Bitch,” Kirabo asked Nsuuta to take out her “original state” and bury it in her yard. She developed a crush on a wealthy boy named Sio. They started a relationship, and then Tom decided to take Kirabo to live with him in the city Kampala so she could get a better education. When Kirabo arrived, Tom introduced her to his wife, Nnambi, and their two children. Nnambi did not want Kirabo to live with them and made her feelings known. After Tom took Kirabo to a work party with them, Nnambi hid in Kirabo’s room and told her to go sleep with her father since she was his new wife. Tom, infuriated, told Nnambi to pack her things and leave.

In “Utopia,” Alikisa came to the city and told Tom he could not kick Nnambi out. Kirabo moved in with Aunt Abi until she started at St. Theresa’s boarding school for girl, an exclusive school she was admitted to because of her test scores, which were low for the school but high for her village. The bottom five percent of girls were expelled after the first two years, but Kirabo managed to improve her grades and become an excellent student. A war broke out in Uganda as a coup was attempted against President Aman. Sio’s father was taken because his mother was from Tanzania. Kirabo risked her life to go see him and the two rekindled their youthful romance. After the war ended, Sio went to college in Tanzania. When he came back for his summer break, he ran into Giibwa while Kirabo was working at the Ministry of Finance and had sex with her. He told Kirabo that Giibwa was pregnant and Kirabo threw water at him. Nsuuta got sick and Kirabo took care of her. She learned Nsuuta and Alikisa had been best friends before they both fell in love with Miiro.

“When the Villages were Young” is set in 1934 and the narrator focuses on Nsuuta and Alikisa when they are ten. The two girls were best friends. Nsuuta was beautiful, rich, and had ambitions to become a nurse, but Alikisa was plain and wanted to be a homemaker. They made a pact to marry the same man so that they could be together forever. Nsuuta started dating Miiro, the son of Luutu, the wealthiest man in town. He wanted to marry her, but she told him she was going to college first, then told Alikisa to convince him to marry her while she was gone. Alikisa did as asked, but Nsuuta got jealous. When she returned, Nsuuta and Miiro reignited their relationship and the three of them lived together in secret. When Nsuuta got pregnant, she had a miscarriage. Alikisa gave her Tom, but took him back when he was 14 because she had learned that Nsuuta was seeing other men.

“Why Penned Hens Peck Each Other,” takes place in 1983 when Kirabo was 19. Her father died in a car accident and Kirabo returned home for his funeral. She learned that her mother was living in Jinja. Kirabo went to go see her, but her mother ignored her and pretended she did not know who she was. Miiro told Kirabo he was leaving her his father’s house, which was remarkable considering she was just a girl. Sio and Kirabo reunited. Kirabo tried to smooth things over with Giibwa, but Giibwa was resistant. Nsuuta went home to die of the breast cancer that had infected her. Alikisa took care of her. Kirabo went to visit them and watched as they stripped naked and bathed in the rain.