Okay. Chloe is a tough kid, a bit of a tomboy, a survivor. She’s come out of a murderous relationship with her mother. Her father has died, and that’s something she has yet to deal with. She’s living with her grandparents at the beginning of the story, and there’s a sense that she’s cocooned, and waiting to become what she’s destined to be—only she doesn’t know whether that’s a wild, instinctual creature like her mother, or a civilized, "normal" girl, like her grandparents.

At the beginning of the story, Silvia is working as a live-in maid for Chloe’s grandparents. Chloe doesn’t think about Silvia too much at all; she’s more of a quiet presence. There comes a point when Silvia is thrown out of the house for getting pregnant. Not long after, Chloe is kidnapped by her mother, who wants to draw her back into the wild life. Circumstances bring them together, and from then on, it’s the story of their attempt to get to California, where Silvia’s boyfriend lives. By this time, Silvia is very pregnant, and it becomes a race against the baby, in a way.