Chang, a mute Chinese boy whose father uses cormorants to fish, is pleased when he is finally old enough to help with the Big Catch and the raising of a new bird.
Young Tug Dockery witnesses a brutal act by his grandfather that leaves him unable to speak, so when his parents die, Tug's beloved older brother feels compelled to escape from a hellish labor camp to rescue him from their grandfather's Florida cattle ranch.
Anna chooses not to talk when she enters kindergarten, but then she discovers the pleasures of self-expression in the security of a therapist's office.
After he is orphaned and has his tongue cut out in a clash with the bullying sons of a Welsh noble, Evyn is sold as a slave and serves many masters, from the gracious Lady Swan Neck to the valiant Harold Godwinson, England's last Saxon king.
