On his way to school, little Ezra Gelehun and many of his companions are kidnapped by rebels of the «Blood Brotherhood». The boy is first subjected to an authentic brainwashing and then given paramilitary training. We find him again seven years after the events described in the prologue, sixteen by now and sitting before a Truth and Reconciliation commission set up in his native village and presided over by a retired American general.
The purpose of the commission is to throw light on what happened during the time Ezra, no longer a child, spent as a rebel soldier. His convocation had been pled for by his older sister, Onitcha, to try to find out whether the youth had, or had not, been behind the attack on their village that had killed their parents.
