Taken or left

A large, crowded household is depicted through the voice of a boy who cherishes the family's sole daughter, Salome, amid his parents' hardship and his mother's constant toil. Domestic detail and neighborhood life lead into a sequence of trials: missing money, broken trust, a children's service, and violent storms that culminate in a dangerous episode at a robber's cave and a harrowing separation. The narrative follows efforts to find and restore Salome, her convalescence, grieving setbacks, and the family's altered fortunes, closing with reflections on the consequences of those events decades later.