Seeking to suppress a native uprising, the Mexican army destroys a small village, forcing Concha, an Opata Indian girl, to head north on her own. She finds her way to Tucson, where she becomes a housekeeper for a wealthy family and gives birth to a beautiful and sensitive daughter, Rosa. The narrative continues with Rosa, who at fifteen marries a young, zealous minister torn between his adopted faith and Mexican spiritualism.

Shelly, the third voice to tell her story, is a Latina working for a publisher in modern-day Los Angeles. Anxious to escape a troubled life, she undertakes a research assignment in Tucson, where she finds herself drawn to a Mexican family whose history is unexpectedly linked to her own. Like Spirits of the Ordinary, where some of these characters appeared, Kathleen Alcala's new novel is a many-layered tale of heritage, loss, and understanding.