Summary

The main character, 14-year-old Nombeko -- lives in Soweto, an impoverished area fifty miles from Johannesburg, South Africa. She is an orphan and lives in a shack in the shanties, where most of her neighbors earn a small living emptying the city latrines and hauling the waste to the river. The girl is self-taught and highly intelligent; in an area where many of the poor spend their few dollars on drugs and alcohol, she has kept a clear head and has elevated herself through discipline and hard work. In the beginning of the story she is promoted to a section manager in the latrine-emptying company, because she can add numbers quickly and is a hard worker. However, her boss, a white man named Piet du Toit, dislikes her because her math is always better than his and she is constantly improving the workforce. However...