A riveting, deeply affecting true story of one girl's coming-of-age in a
polygamist family.
RUTH WARINER was the thirty-ninth of her father's forty-two children. Growing up
on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices
of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or
electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by
destroying the world and that women can only ascend to Heaven by entering into
polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible. After
Ruth's father?the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony?is
brutally murdered by his