The story tells the tale of Zitkala-Sa, a young girl excitedly moving away from her village to a boarding school. Her excitement quickly goes away once she finds out the unpleasant realities of her new life, which require her to assimilate into white culture. She has to change her hair, the way she dresses, everything about her. She desperately misses her mother as she suffers loneliness in her new environment. The story presents a new point of view on white culture, one that is unhappy. It reveals the harshness of life for those on the outside, looking in.