Summary

The novel opens in the small, unnamed Nepalese village in the Himalayan mountains where Lakshmi grows up. The story opens with Lakshmi and her mother, Ama, inspecting the thatch roof of their hut. Lakshmi's mother fears what will happen when the heavy rains come since the family is too poor to afford a tin roof.

Lakshmi's best friend Gita has left the village to work in a nearby city as a maid, and Lakshmi tells Ama that she can do the same, to earn wages she will then send home to her family. Though Ama tells her she must stay in school, Lakshmi suspects that her stepfather feels otherwise, and that he sees her - like the cucumbers she is growing in front of their house - as a way to make more money to buy luxuries for himself. Though many men from...