Summary

Part I: "They Took All Of Us" begins with Chapter 1/Thirty Girls in which Sister Giulia goes to bed with a normal amount of worry on the night the girls are taken. The banging first appears in her dreams, but as soon as she wakes, she knows the rebels have arrived, and her suspicion is confirmed when the watchman knocks on her door to alert her. Gathering in the hallway, the nuns wonder what they can do as they pray that the doors of the dormitory hold. As the nuns hide in the garden, listening to the banging, Sister Rosario laments their decision not to move the girls when the soldiers standing guard left for a holiday celebration. The banging is replaced by tinkling glass and shouting

When the noise fades, Sister Giulia can wait no longer to check on her girls...