As a child, Michelle Dowd grew up on a mountain in the Angeles National Forest. She was born into an ultra-religious cult - or the Field as they called it - started in the 1930s by her grandfather. Comfort and care are sins, Michelle is told. At the Field, a young Michelle lives a life of abuse, poverty, and isolation, as she obeys her family's rigorous religious and patriarchal rules. But as Michelle gets older, she realizes she has the strength to break free. And so she does.
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