Ruth
Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father's forty-two children,
growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye
to the practices of her community. She lived in ramshackle house
without indoor plumbing or electricity.
After
Ruth's father - the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony
- was murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother
remarried, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.