A group of adult men place the girl’s corpse on the bier while the mother cries out in desperation. Two young men lift up the bier and halt in front of an elderly man who asks the corpse for the reason of her death. The bier moves ahead, indicating a negative response to all his questions. Then other people ask and the bier still moves ahead. Finally, the girl’s mother poses her question and the bier now moves backwards. Everybody is completely silent. The girl’s maternal aunt, who died several years ago, is identified as responsible for the death.

The book examines the assumption that impoverished mothers living in areas with high rates of fertility and child mortality will, as a survival strategy, neglect their children and fail to mourn their death. It is based on an anthropological fieldwork conducted among the matrilineal Papel in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.