In 2005, Punam Tamang is nine, living in the Nepalese city of Bhaktapur. She lost her mother when she was five years old and since that time she has been the family caretaker to her small siblings while her father works from dawn till night. Punam tells us her story and she introduces us to her family, neighborhood, teachers, and friends. Four years later, life has changed for Punam, who is now thirteen. What she and her siblings had managed to avoid has now become an inevitability: in 2009, her narrative takes us to the local brick-making factory.