Summary

The novel starts with the von Riesen family watching their house being driven away to an unknown destination. The von Riesens were forced to sell the house their father Jacob (Jake) built so that the neighboring car dealership could build a new parking lot. The von Riesen family lived in a Mennonite community called East Village when Yoli and Elf were children. Before they moved to the new house across town they went on a family camping trip to the Badlands. Unfamiliar with camping, Jacob’s first attempt at a campfire nearly ended in disaster as their propane stove exploded. They also visited the pictographs and Jacob noted that they were scenes of “forgotten dreams.”

In the present, Yolandi remembers these happier family times from her sister Elfrieda’s hospital room. Elfrieda, or Elf, has been hospitalized because she tried to kill herself by...