Bundle, abandoned as a baby in a Wainuiomata house, has been passed from carer to carer until at twelve she is sent to a disturbed girls' home in Wellington. By 2001, she has grown up and moved on, but not very far. On the police station steps she meets up with the childhood friend who taught her how to tattoo her flesh and swallow pins. He is her closest thing to family. What she now has difficulty swallowing are the normal aspects of life.