Matilda is forty-eight and dying, and her younger siblings, now successful, can't stand her. They remember the fire, the gambling debts and the years they were sold away. Furious, they attach a brainwave device to her body and beam her memories out to everyone, demanding a public trial. Everything they see confirms their hatred, and the world seems ready to condemn her.
Then the truth surfaces. Matilda set the fire to hide the children from dealers who wanted them dead. Every debt she ran up was a way to fund their survival, and she bartered her own freedom to feed them. She knelt before strangers to beg for shelter for them and turned to crime to track the men who threatened them. As the siblings watch her memories play out, their rage turns to grief, and they realize the sister they condemned was a sacrifice all along.
