"Ninette is an unlikely protagonist: Compelled by poverty to work as a prostitute, she dreams of a better life and and an education for her son. Plucky and street-wise, she enrolls her son in the local school and the story unfolds as she narrates her life to the school's headmistress. Ninette's account is both a classic rags-to-riches tale and a subtle, incisive critique of French colonialism."-- From back cover.