Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of child sexual abuse and neglect, domestic violence, graphically depicted deaths, and religious abuse and trauma.

The author of The Sound of Gravel, as well as its protagonist and narrator, Ruth Wariner tells the story of her childhood growing up in the polygamist colony of LeBaron in Mexico and parts of the southern US. Her memoir is honest, open, and provocative in its willingness to expose aspects of polygamy seldom discussed publicly. Ruth’s story begins when she was five years old and spans 10 years, until she finally finds the means and the courage to leave the colony. As a child, Ruth was a pale and freckled girl with nearly white hair, and she and her siblings’ skin often became scorched in the desert sun. Ruth’s story thematically exemplifies Courage and Resilience in the Face of Adversity. As the eldest able daughter in the family, she was expected to help raise and care for her siblings, seldom attended school, and endured malnutrition, impoverished living conditions, and sexual abuse. In addition, Ruth witnessed her mother enduring abuse and a life of loneliness and servitude to a cause that Ruth herself did not believe in.