Kek arrives at a Minnesota airport alone and is picked up by resettlement worker Dave.

Kek spots an old cow standing alone in a snowy field and begs Dave to stop the car.

Kek is reunited with his aunt Nyatal and his cousin Ganwar at their apartment.

Kek learns the Refugee Resettlement Center is actively searching for his mother but chances of finding her are slim.

Kek starts his first day of school in an ESL class led by teacher Ms. Hernandez.

Kek forms a friendship with Hannah, a girl in his apartment complex who lives with a foster family.

Kek accidentally breaks his aunt's dishes by washing them in the clothes washing machine.

Kek and Hannah take the bus to Lou's farm and Kek proposes caring for her lonely cow.

Lou hires Kek to care for her cow, and the ESL class votes to name the cow Gol, meaning family.

Kek convinces Lou to hire Ganwar at the farm too, and Ganwar accepts despite his initial resistance.

Lou injures her leg and announces she must sell the farm; Kek storms out in anger.

Dave arrives to tell Kek that his mother cannot be found in any of the searched refugee camps.

Kek runs away toward the airport but stops the bus when he spots Gol standing alone in the field.

Kek, Ganwar, and Hannah walk Gol through traffic and convince the zoo director to accept her.

Kek's mother arrives at the airport and the two are finally reunited after a long separation.

Kek arrives in Minnesota as a young Sudanese refugee, having lost his father and brother and been separated from his mother during a violent attack on their camp. He moves in with his aunt and cousin and throws himself into school and American life while quietly holding onto hope that his mother is still alive. The turning point in Kek's year comes when he finds work caring for an old cow named Gol on a rundown farm, a job that also helps draw his bitter cousin Ganwar out of isolation. When the farm must be sold and the refugee center reports no trace of his mother, Kek reaches his lowest point and tries to run away. Instead of fleeing, he rallies his friends to walk Gol safely to the local zoo, finding new purpose in the act of giving. His perseverance is finally rewarded when his mother is found and he waits at the airport to welcome her to her new home.

The central journey of a Sudanese refugee finding home in America.

Dave turns the car around so Kek can walk through the snow to meet the old cow up close.

Dave teaches Kek how to use light switches, door locks, and the thermostat in the apartment.

Ganwar reveals he has been fighting at school and tells Kek they will never truly feel American.

Kek tries on new school clothes and wonders whether looking American would be a good or bad thing.

Ms. Hernandez surprises her ESL students by revealing she was once an immigrant from Mexico herself.

Kek draws a bull in ESL class to represent his homeland and all his classmates break into mooing.

Kek eats French fries for the first time at lunch and tells Hannah she is a fine cook.

At lunch Hannah asks about Ganwar's missing hand, and classmate Nishan says not knowing is the hardest thing.

Kek's aunt explains Ganwar's bitterness to Kek and admits that America is a lonely place for older immigrants.

Hannah tells Kek about her foster care situation and gives him his first glass of chocolate milk.

A classmate mocks Kek with a crude drawing of bones; Kek throws a half-eaten apple back and earns detention.

Kek accompanies Hannah to the grocery store and bursts into tears at the sight of so much food.

On the bus ride home from the store, Kek tells Hannah about a dying baby he witnessed at the refugee camp.

Kek opens up to Ms. Hernandez in the school library, talking about his family and his grief.

Kek whispers a special farewell message into Gol's ear before watching her enter her new home at the zoo.

While Kek adjusts to life in Minnesota, he encounters American culture in ways that are by turns hilarious, confusing, and heartbreaking, from his first taste of French fries to breaking into tears in the middle of a grocery store. He builds honest friendships through shared moments of laughter and grief, finding that his ESL classmates, his teacher Ms. Hernandez, and Hannah all understand something about loss and starting over. His relationship with Hannah deepens when she tells him about her absent mother and he responds with the same stubborn hope he carries for his own. When a classmate mocks him with a crude drawing, Kek responds with characteristic directness and earns his first detention. The secondary events of the novel reveal that Kek's healing is as much about giving as receiving: he opens up to Ms. Hernandez in the library, shares a devastating story with Hannah on a bus ride home, and ultimately whispers a parting wish to Gol as she begins her new life at the zoo.

The everyday discoveries and friendships that shaped Kek's first year in America.

While driving past bare winter trees, Kek refuses Dave's implication that his mother may be dead.

Kek quietly touches a torn piece of his mother's blue-and-yellow dress that he keeps in his pocket.

Kek's aunt tells Dave that Kek finds sun when the sky is dark, revealing her deep faith in him.

Ganwar warns Kek that a man knows when he is defeated, and Kek fears his cousin might be right.

Kek discovers that working at Lou's farm and talking to Gol stops his mind from drifting to dark places.

On a class field trip to the zoo, Kek notices the petting zoo has no cows, planting a future idea.

Kek silently wrestles with survivor's guilt, unable to understand why he deserves comforts his dead family never had.

After Lou announces the farm sale, Kek refuses to return and ignores all of Lou's phone calls.

On the last day of school, Mr. Franklin puts Gol on the class cake and Kek feels guilty for abandoning the farm.

At the summer library, Kek confesses to Hannah that he is beginning to forget what his mother's face looks like.

Kek urges a hesitant Hannah to write a letter to her estranged mother, and she fills page after page.

Kek has a vivid nightmare reliving the night he fled the camp and was torn from his mother.

Kek confesses to Ganwar that he feels like a coward for leaving his mother behind during the attack.

Kek leaves half his money for Ganwar, draws a farewell heart with his name, and slips out of the apartment.

Kek takes his frightened mother's hand at the airport escalator and tells her welcome home.

From the beginning, Kek's story is shaped by a stubborn refusal to accept that hope is foolish, even as everyone around him urges him to expect less. Each revelation tests that resolve: his cousin's warning that a man knows when he is defeated, his growing guilt for surviving when his family did not, and the news that his mother may never be found. Kek's darkest turning point comes when a nightmare about the attack leads him to confess to Ganwar that he feels like a coward for running, before he quietly slips out of the apartment to flee entirely. Small but significant moments keep redirecting Kek toward staying: discovering that caring for Gol quiets his grief, watching Hannah find the courage to write to her mother, and seeing Lou face her own forced departure with quiet dignity. Each of these shifts builds toward the emotional resolution of the novel, where Kek's long-held hope is finally proven right. He welcomes his mother to America by taking her hand at the escalator she fears, completing the full circle of the story's central promise.

The turning points, confessions, and revelations that tested and strengthened Kek's hope.