The Girl from the Rice Paddies

Wichi is a twelve year old Thai girl, intelligent, joyful and extroverted. She lives a happy life, but things begin to get worse when her mother becomes addicted to gambling and loses the small amount of money they have. Wichi’s father disappears from home, never to return, and Wichi’s world falls apart definitively when her mother dies and she is left in the charge of her grandmother, Mrs Phakamon, a perverse old woman who never loved Wichi and plans to abandon her in a brothel. However, the serendipitous intervention of Siri, the only person who really cares about Wichi, will save her from her terrible fate and send them on a long journey.