Before seven years old Oneke’s mother dies, she hands Oneke to Bessem, her city-based sister. Twelve years later, Bessem dies and Oneke, now a nursing student returns to her village to ask her father for school fees. On arrival she hears a girl screaming as her breasts are being “ironed” to prevent them from developing too fast, and remembers the pain she herself suffered when it was done to her.