So many young girls are sold into India's brothels every year. It is a thriving business. And the girls are young and naive and have no idea what is goign to happen to them and how their lives will be destroyed. Lakshmi is sold by her stepfather to work as a maid with a rich woman in the city. That woman is a broker who sells her to a madam. She goes planning to work hard and get money for a new roof for her family. Only that is not what happens. She is forced into being a low paid prostitute (the price of a bottle of coca cola will buy her body) and beaten and punished when she tries to refuse. 
 This book is fiction but the saddest part is for tens of thousands of girls each year, it is a reality. A dirty ugly trade that aid workers are having a hard time stopping.