Yslea (pronounced Iss-LAY-uh) is a pregnant 19-year-old who is full of contradictions. She drifts into the lives of four people living in dilapidated row houses along the train tracks outside of Memphis. The way their three houses lean in toward each other, and the way the paint peels and some of the windows are covered with cardboard, the row might as easily have been empty. But the inside of their homes is larger than the outside, and she finds both pain and healing there. She struggles to express her thoughts, and she wonders if she will have something of substance to say to her baby who is waking her up and causing her to think about things in a different way. Yslea sees suffering all around her, but she overcomes it in her own quiet way.