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Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl living with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though poor, her life contains simple pleasures until monsoons destroy the family's crops. Her stepfather tells her she must leave home to work and support the family. A stranger promises her a job as a maid in the city, and Lakshmi travels to India with hope. She arrives at a place called "Happiness House" only to discover she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz controls the brothel with cruelty and cunning, trapping Lakshmi in debt while cheating her of earnings so she cannot escape. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare, but she holds to her mother's words—Simply to endure is to triumph. She forms friendships with other girls that help her survive. Eventually, she faces a choice: will she risk everything to reclaim her life? Written in spare, evocative vignettes, this verse novel presents a world both unimaginable and real, following a girl who not only survives but triumphs. The book was a National Book Award finalist and received recognition including a Gustav-Heinemann Peace Prize and selection on the American Library Association Top Ten List.