Nomi’s sister, Tash, and mother, Trudie, demonstrate a lack of loyalty not just toward their congregation, but also toward the family. Although three years have passed since the two women left the town of East Village, Nomi and her father, Ray, are still trying to cope with their absence. Because of their departure, Nomi feels even more pressure to remain loyal to her father, despite her misgivings that this environment ultimately does not suit her.

As a young woman, Nomi attempts to define herself and her place in the world. She rebels against her community by using “drugs and my imagination” and creates a community with her friends, who similarly do not fit in to their strict Mennonite upbringing. Nomi also must define her own code of behavior, because the adults in her life either have fled (her mother), are in a daze (her father), or are coldhearted (her uncle).

Nomi’s mother and sister refused to conform to their town’s values. Nomi embraces her individuality but struggles within the confines of her environment. This theme is illustrated symbolically when Nomi sees Mennonite dresses blow off of a clothes line “flying around like large crazy birds way up in the sky. . . . They were dancing all over the place, seriously shaking it in this crazy, free, beautiful way.” The dresses, a symbol of their community’s conformity, transform into a symbol of freedom. Nomi similarly dreams of flying away from East Village to a life that suits who she is inside.

As a teenager in the tight-knit Mennonite community, Nomi should not be fantasizing about living in New York City. She and her friends should also not be drinking, dancing, or purchasing drugs. However, the story proves that the curiosity that goes hand in hand with coming of age trumps societal rules.

Another coming-of-age reference takes place when Nomi loses her virginity to Travis and experiences the crushing effects of rejection.

Many of the practices carried out by the Mennonites, such as Trudie's shunning of the patriarchal power that Mr. Quiring has, are typical of stories of religious communities.

As a typical religious community, the Mennonites adhere to rigid cultural practices and have little tolerance for outsiders or those who wish to leave their ranks.

One clear theme of this novel is religious persecution. Towe traces the migration of Mennonites due to religious persecution from Russia and other countries to Nomi's East Village in Canada. As Mennonites were harassed, hurt, killed, and banned for their strict beliefs and practices, they sought refuge in various places in Canada. Nomi also faces persecution within her own community as she resists the strict teachings, longing for choice and freedom. Eventually discovering that her sister and mother were shunned, Nomi finds a "complicated kindness" in her own excommunication from the Mennonite community.

Devotion is another powerful theme of this novel. Nomi's father, Ray, is fiercely devoted to both the Mennonite way of life and his family. While his wife and other daughter have left the family, he remains devoted to them in his heart. He is also lovingly devoted to Nomi, even though she challenges the Mennonite way of life. Nomi is devoted to taking care of her ailing father and struggles with the thought of leaving him alone in the village. She is also devoted to helping children in her community.

A third theme present throughout the novel is family. The family unit is the cornerstone of the Mennonite community, and members are to strongly influence one another in obedience and pure living. Nomi's personal struggle for identity, self-realization, and individualism is ironically interwined with her family's history, memories, disintegration, and love. As her father, sister, and mother are her world for many years of her youth, Nomi is powerfully affected by the fragmenting of the relationships. Her own quest for freedom is constantly affected by the truth of what happened to her mother and sister. Also, her own father's happiness is paramount to her daily and overall decisions.