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This short, character-driven novel takes the reader to the Bronx and Yonkers where a tight-knit Latino family live and love. Short chapters and comedic vignettes make this a fun and engrossing book.

Focusing on the families of two matriarchs, Antonia and Esperanza, who are suspicious of each. They are forced to come into contact when their children, Alberto and Amada, marry. Esperanza is widely known in the community as a spiritualist, though some call her a witch, and many people visit her requesting help. She does not deal in black magic and maintains that her powers are God’s work. She knows many things before being told and has premonitions that come to fruition.

Sarah, a woman in the neighborhood, had eyes for Alberto since they were teens. He was not interested until after he married Amada. Their affair caused Alberto’s uncle Pedro to confront him and on that very day, Pedro was murdered. There was something dark lurking around the family.

Sarah later married Coco, and they had a son. One day, they went to the shop that Antonia owned, and when Antonia saw the boy, she knew it was Alberto’s and not Coco’s. She confronted Sarah and Coco overheard. He went home, threw all of Sarah’s magical objects out of the window, and then took his own life. Sarah disappeared after that, and Amada lost an eye in a tragic accident with scissors soon after that.

While Sarah was never found, the boy turned up in a convent. The priest who Antonia confessed to each week knew right away who the boy was and notified Antonia. Alberto and Sarah raised the boy as their own.