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Throughout the novel, Alice wrestles with complicated questions about guilt, innocence, and the possibility of change. Having committed murder as a 10-year-old-girl, Alice is branded as a killer and sent to a correctional facility for six years. The outside world condemns her as a monster and argues that she should get much harsher treatment than she has received. When she is released, the media continues to hound her, publishing sensational stories about the old crime. For most people, Alice is branded as a wholly bad person because she killed another child.

Alice wrestles with guilt as she tries to build a new life for herself. While she deeply regrets her actions, she tries not to make excuses for herself; she admits that she did want to hurt the girl she killed and that she was angry and lashing out in rage. In everyday life, Alice remains a polite and mild-mannered young adult. While Alice herself takes responsibility for her crime, she does not think of herself as a fundamentally evil person. She tries desperately to escape her dark past and to begin a new life with a fresh start. Other people around her, such as her foster mother

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