Thirty-six urns

A family grave can hold thirty-six urns. How much sorrow can one life hold?

A year has passed since Sirpa's mother's death. Tonight, Tuoni's Daughter, the mythical daughter of death, will come for her soul. For Sirpa to come to terms with her mother's passing, she must try to understand her life.

Why didn't her mother love her? Why couldn't she accept love from others? Using thirty-six objects from the past, memories, and her mother's diaries, Sirpa gradually finds answers to the questions that have haunted her since childhood. Her mother also had a difficult relationship with her own parents and was cruelly affected by a tragic event in her youth. Her life was full of disappointment and injustice.

The search for the roots of this generational trauma leads the author all the way back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Her ancestors were scarred by wars, imprisonment, oppression, and turbulent social changes. Sadness, anger, unrequited love, and feelings of inadequacy and rejection are passed down from generation to generation. Is it even within human power to break this chain and find peace?