Small Damages

Kenzie is a high school senior with prom and a college start ahead of her when she learns she is pregnant. She wants to keep the baby. Her boyfriend and her mother do not understand that, and they make the decision for her.

She is sent to Spain to live out the pregnancy. A Spanish couple will adopt the baby, and no one back home is ever to know. Kenzie arrives alone and resentful, and for a while she is sullen and hard to deal with.

Two people at the Spanish household slowly change that. Estela is the stubborn old cook, and Esteban is the mysterious young man who looks after the horses. Through them Kenzie starts to notice the place around her, and what she feels inside.

Kenzie has to make real decisions about life, love and home, and the adoption arranged for her child hangs over each one. The young adult coming-of-age story leans on sensory detail: the heat, the colors and the smells of Spain.