 As Tan-Tan grows older, her father slowly slides into alcoholism and depression until he takes to beating and raping Tan-Tan on a regular basis.On her sixteenth birthday, Tan-Tan kills him in self-defense and, pregnant with his child, flees into the forbidding bush that surrounds their small settlement with the help of Chichibud, who takes her to live among the Douen in his village tree.The Douen, concerned about letting a human into their home tree and learning their secrets, reluctantly allow her to live with them.