Pages 9-39 Summary

At the beginning of the story, Rosa Burger is a 14-year-old school girl whose mother has just been arrested. The story then follows the next 15 years or so of Rosa's life. She is waiting in line to bring him some items outside a jail in Pretoria, South Africa. The English-speaking school girls at Rosa's school blame the arrest of Rosa's mother on the Boers, but the Burgers are actually an Afrikaans family. The reader is placed inside Rosa's mind while she is waiting outside the jail. Other people there include Flora Donaldson and Ivy Terblanche, who are long-time family friends. Rosa is in pain because she is menstruating. She conceals a note inside a water bottle cap that indicates that Rosa's father has not yet been arrested.

A few years later, Rosa's mother is dying and her father Lionel is out...