Ada Magnusson

Ada is a 17-year-old girl who lives with her mother and sisters in the American town of Fairchild. She is the eldest of four sisters, goes to school, and works as an assistant to her mother who is the town's midwife. She is inquisitive, intelligent, eager to learn, and well read. When the reader first meets her, she also seems naïve and obedient. Like most girls her age, she is destined to marry and have children. She does not question this destiny and is attracted to the husband that has been chosen for her. She admires her mother for her wisdom and her work as a midwife, and tries to learn from her as much as she can. She dearly loves her baby sister Bee with whom she feels a special bond. Of her three siblings, Bee is the one Ada comes to miss the most...