In a large village, a kind and polite young girl named Ujuna lived with her grandmother, whom she called N. They resided in a small house on the village's edge and were very poor. They had no farmland and relied on a small garden and a few crafts that N could make. Their poverty was compounded by the villagers' avoidance; no one wanted to be friends with them or trade openly with them. This social rejection stemmed from the fact that Ujuna was born out of wedlock. Her mother, a beautiful but naive girl, had fallen in love at a young age with a man who made grand promises.