Part 2 - St. Louis, Winter, 1908, Chapters 15 and 16 Summary

Chapter 15: In the first part of this chapter, narration describes how Catherine and Alice struggled to survive after their mother died giving birth to Alice and their father eventually drank himself into a grieving death - Catherine was fourteen, Alice was seven. Alice was eventually put into a poorhouse, where she started school and passed on what she learned there to Catherine. Catherine quickly learned to sell her body to men, saving what money she could. Eventually they moved to Philadelphia where the cycle repeated itself, but with some additions - Catherine started going to the library and teaching herself, and also found a man to take care of her regularly, a man whom she one day finds in bed with twelve year old Alice. She and Alice then fled to...