This is the journey of Sindhutai Sapkal, a poor village girl who grew up tending buffaloes while craving an education, but her unsympathetic mother had her married off to an older man when she was 12 years old. What could have been a predictable life took a much different course when Sindhutai was unjustly accused of carrying another man's child and was thrown out of the house by her husband and his family. Rejected by her mother, she survived on the streets with her infant daughter by her wit and determination, wandering from town to town, begging and singing religious songs near temples. Seeing abandoned children, she recognized their needs and vowed to become their mother, collecting what she could to feed her growing tribe. "My hunger taught me to speak and the pain within me taught me to sing," she says. Charismatic and persuasive she was able to make the leap from intense poverty to becoming an effective speaker, raising enough funds to build shelters for her "children". To date she has built three ashrams, educating two thousand children and sheltering one thousand orphans.