Beyond the Mango Tree is a story narrated in first-person by twelve-year-old Sarina, an American girl from Boston who has moved to Liberia with her family. Sarina is trapped—emotionally and physically—in an unhappy home. Her father is most often away working in the bush, and her mother—severely ill with diabetes—is wildly fearful of losing her daughter. Sarina is never allowed outside the family's yard alone, and when her mother is having a bad day, she even ties Sarina to the mango tree in their front yard.