Adunni's father tells her the family cannot pay rent and has arranged her marriage to an elderly taxi driver named Morufu.

Adunni marries Morufu and is driven to his home, where she meets his two other wives, Labake and Khadija.

Morufu rapes Adunni on their wedding night and tells her they will have sex until she bears him a son.

Khadija secretly brews an herbal remedy to stop Adunni from becoming pregnant by Morufu, swearing her to secrecy.

On a secret trip, Bamidele reveals he is the real father of Khadija's unborn baby and leads them to a river.

Khadija dies beside the river during the ritual as Bamidele disappears, leaving Adunni alone with the body.

Adunni runs to Iya's house, accepts Iya's brother Kola's offer of work in Lagos, and leaves her village forever.

Big Madam knocks Adunni unconscious with a shoe after Adunni drops a tray during a neighborhood party.

Tia befriends Adunni after the party beating and later secretly agrees to be her guarantor for a scholarship application.

Big Daddy approaches Adunni with money in exchange for sex; she refuses, and Kofi interrupts before he can escalate.

Adunni writes an honest, unflinching account of her life and submits it as her scholarship essay.

Big Daddy attacks Adunni in her room; she fights back with her mother's bible just as Big Madam walks in.

Big Madam discovers Big Daddy has also been having an affair with a neighbor and permanently kicks him out of the house.

Big Madam tears Rebecca's letter to pieces and tells Adunni that Rebecca was driven away alive, not murdered.

Adunni receives word that she won the scholarship and leaves Big Madam's house with Tia to begin her new life.

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl whose father sells her into marriage with an elderly taxi driver to pay the family's rent. After being raped and trapped in her husband's household, she is forced to flee when her only friend inside the marriage dies under suspicious circumstances. Desperate and fearing a murder accusation, Adunni escapes to Lagos with a man named Kola, who delivers her into the abusive household of a wealthy businesswoman known as Big Madam. There, Adunni endures daily beatings while forming a friendship with a neighbor named Tia, who helps her secretly apply for a scholarship that could change her life. When Big Madam's husband attacks Adunni and Big Madam catches him in the act, the balance of power in the household shifts dramatically. Adunni wins the scholarship, confronts the truth about a missing housemaid, and finally leaves to begin the educated life her mother always dreamed for her.

Adunni's journey from forced marriage to education and freedom.

Adunni visits her friend Enitan before the wedding and considers running away, but decides the risks and consequences are too great.

Labake immediately bullies Adunni upon arrival, while Morufu declares himself king and sets a sleeping schedule for all three wives.

Adunni sneaks away from Morufu's compound to visit the river, where she spots her brother Kayus and they reunite briefly.

Labake stops Adunni on the road and accuses her of stealing gas, but Kike intervenes and defuses the confrontation.

Kike reveals Morufu has arranged her marriage to an older widower, and Adunni encourages her not to give up her dreams.

Adunni's father searches Iya's house looking for her, but Kayus finds Adunni hiding in the bathroom and lies to protect her.

Kola drives Adunni through the streets of Lagos, pointing out landmarks, before delivering her to Big Madam's luxurious mansion.

Kofi gives Adunni a tour of Big Madam's mansion, warns her about Big Daddy and Kola's dishonesty, and teaches her to iron.

Adunni discovers The Book of Nigerian Facts in Big Madam's library and becomes fascinated by what it teaches her about her country.

Big Madam and Tia's husband Ken reach an agreement that allows Adunni to accompany Tia to the local market each week.

Tia gives Adunni three English-language books and a secret mobile phone, telling her to fight if Big Daddy returns.

Big Madam takes Adunni to her fabric shop and shares a rare warm moment, telling Adunni never to give up on her dreams.

Big Madam brings Adunni to church, where housemaids are separated from the wealthy congregation and sent to a small, smelly building.

Adunni speaks with a well-treated maid named Chisom at church and learns that Rebecca was visibly pregnant before she disappeared.

Before leaving, Adunni uses a coat hanger to scratch her name and Rebecca's name into the wall of her former room.

Before Adunni's forced marriage, she visits her friend Enitan and wrestles with the impossible choice between running away and accepting her fate. Once inside Morufu's household, she navigates constant bullying from his first wife Labake while stealing small moments of joy, including a secret visit to the river where she sees her brother Kayus. After Khadija's death forces her to flee, Adunni arrives in Lagos, where Kola briefly shows her the overwhelming city before leaving her in the care of the demanding and violent Big Madam. Kofi the household chef becomes her first ally, and discovering a book of facts about Nigeria opens Adunni's mind to a wider world beyond her village. Key relationships with Tia and brief moments of unexpected warmth — including a visit to Big Madam's fabric shop and lessons on English — sustain Adunni through her ordeal. As her time in the house nears its end, Adunni pieces together what happened to the missing housemaid Rebecca and leaves behind names scratched into the wall as proof she was ever there.

The people and places that shaped Adunni's survival.

Morufu arrives at Adunni's family home with goats and chickens as a bride price; Adunni pretends to be sick to avoid him.

On the night before her wedding, Adunni bites cloth to muffle her screams, and Kayus wakes to sit silently beside her.

The morning after Adunni's first night with Morufu, Khadija comforts her in the kitchen and offers to ease her physical pain.

Bamidele fetches soap at the river and then flees during the ritual, abandoning Khadija as her condition rapidly worsens.

Adunni goes to her father and explains what happened to Khadija, but he insists on involving the village chief, so she flees again.

Adunni takes her small savings and quietly slips away from her family home in the rain before anyone can stop her.

Big Daddy intervenes when Big Madam savagely beats Adunni in the library, then embraces Adunni in a way that feels dangerously intimate.

Adunni reads a newspaper article about a scholarship program for female domestic workers and begins secretly planning her application.

Tia and Adunni visit Balogun market together, where Adunni haggles expertly and reveals her dream of having a louding voice.

While Big Madam sleeps in the parlor, Big Daddy questions Adunni about her age and compliments her appearance, making her deeply uneasy.

Adunni overhears Big Madam sobbing and begging Big Daddy to love her after a violent fight, revealing the pain beneath her cruelty.

Women at the traditional fertility ritual beat Tia with brooms as she screams; Adunni watches helplessly, frozen in shock.

Tia's husband Ken confesses that he is sterile and unable to father children, shattering the purpose of all their fertility efforts.

The driver Abu secretly delivers a blood-stained letter written by Rebecca, revealing Big Daddy impregnated her and forced a miscarriage.

Adunni confronts Big Madam directly, telling her that Big Daddy has victimized them both, and demanding the full truth about Rebecca.

The turning points in Adunni's story begin even before her wedding, as Morufu's bride-price delivery signals her fate is sealed and the night before the ceremony brings a grief she can barely contain. Each step inside Morufu's household involves small but vital choices — accepting Khadija's herbal help, staying quiet, or eventually fleeing — that determine whether she survives. After Khadija's death, Adunni must decide twice whether to trust adults who have already failed her, choosing flight over surrender each time and arriving in Lagos with nothing but her savings and her mother's memory. In the mansion, a series of revelations reshape her understanding of everyone around her: Big Daddy's predatory nature, Big Madam's hidden vulnerability, and the horrifying truth about what happened to the previous housemaid Rebecca. The discovery of Rebecca's blood-stained letter and Adunni's subsequent confrontation with Big Madam mark the moment she finally speaks with the louding voice she has always been building. Together these turning points chart the inner transformation of a girl who survives not by chance but by hard-won courage.