Saul begins his time at St. Germ's (his name for St. Jerome’s) alone. Most of the kids can’t speak and read English the way he can, and they see him as an outsider. His own pain at the loss of his family cements his desire to stay away, as does his growing love for literature and the nuns' encouragement. Those children who don’t obey the mute order of the school are the victims of abuse and wanton cruelty at the hands of the nuns. A six-year-old boy, Arden, who wipes his runny nose with his arm instead of a handkerchief, is tied up with his hands behind his back and left that way, day after day. Eventually, he hangs himself. A twelve-year-old girl named Sheila Jack was raised to be a shaman, and draws the admiration of the other students when she arrives. Fearing her influence, the nuns force her to recite the catechism at all hours, until she goes insane and is taken away to an asylum.