Riva Minska is the adolescent protagonist and narrator of The Cage. Born and raised in Lodz, Poland, Riva is the intellectual, caring middle child of a family of seven children, the eldest three of whom her mother sent to Russia before the story begins. Riva lives in an old apartment building in what becomes the Jewish ghetto as Nazi Germans invade and control the city; the ghettoization of the city breaks the bonds between her family and the Gerber family, a non-Jewish family that has also lived in the building in the past generations. As their warm community falls apart, Riva’s mother sets an example of loyalty and courage that Riva remembers even after her mother is taken away to a labor camp. Left in charge of her younger brothers, Motele, Moishele, and Laibele, Riva becomes a surrogate mother both in spirit and in law (after she legally adopts them). Riva’s mother’s powerful example motivates her to keep spirits high in the family, to protect her brothers, and to keep them all together for as long as she can.

When the family, and their neighbors, finally give themselves over to the Nazis for fear of starvation, they ride a train to Auschwitz together, where soldiers quickly separate them.