When nine year old Swiv is kicked out of school for fighting, she finds she doesn't mind very much. At home, classes include Poached Egg and How to Dig a Winter Grave, and her Grandma is a lively - if exasperating - teacher. Swiv isn't the only member of her family who has been fighting.

Grandma has fought her whole life: for her independence, for her spirit, and for her children. And, as Swiv will learn, her mother is a woman who knows intimately what it can cost to survive in this world, and is battling - painfully, ferociously - on every front.