The setting of the novel can only be narrowed down to West Africa. The protagonist of the narrative is a boy Agu, who is forced to become a child soldier.
Fortunately, at least his mother and sister were protected by UN peacekeepers, but Agu was forced to stay in the Village. Soon the soldiers attack, and they men predict their inevitable doom, but at his father’s wishes, Agu runs away.
However, Agu is found by the soldiers and forced to join the rebel force. He has lost his innocence and childhood. Unfortunately he realizes the hard way that war is making a man out of him.
They have hardly anything to eat, so must manage to scour anything they can. At one point, Agu and the other children are brutally raped.
In a sudden attack on the authorities, the soldiers are left shaken, and Agu is able to leave the soldiers and make his way home. He soon finds a safe haven in a missionary shelter run by a preacher and a white woman. He slowly convalesces over time.
He talks to the white woman, Amy, and tells her about his life, and his dreams of being a doctor and save lives, perhaps for redemption.
