The Khmer Rouge sent people they considered unclean to work in villages in the Cambodian countryside. Some of the tasks they did were farming, building canals, and building dams. These tasks both occupied the people who were taken and did work that the Khmer Rouge needed to be done. Loung also says that they're told that hard work will teach them to have pride in their country and that "only then will we be worthy to call ourselves Khmer."

The Khmer Rouge took over the Cambodian government after Prince Sihanouk was deposed by General Lon Nol, who was then deposed by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was backed largely by peasants and farmers, according to Loung Ung. They were frustrated with the rich people becoming richer while the poor became poorer under Prince Sihanouk.

Once the Khmer Rouge came into power, they moved people to work camps in rural villages. People who were wealthy or well-off or connected to the government—like Loung's father—were targets. This is how Loung and her family are taken from Phnom Penh.

When Loung and her family are taken from their home and moved to a series of different locations, they're forced to work all day long. They farm and work on infrastructure. The conditions they live in aren't healthy and they don't do well under the regime. Loung loses her father when he's taken in the middle of the night. Two of her brothers are sent to hard labor camps.

The Khmer Rouge had people work to get things done that they required and also as a punishment for having opposed their government or living in a way that they didn't approve of before they took over. It was also a way to occupy the people they sent to the villages to live. Loung says that they didn't have enough to eat after a month even with the amount of hard work they did. They had to mix their rice with mushrooms, banana stocks, and other leaves. Then the leaves began to run out.