Gaeta has taken on extra shifts at the dairy where he operates a forklift in order to save enough money to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend Joyce. It's looking like his plan will work, but when his 13-year-old daughter Ana is chased from the laundromat she begins pushing her father to buy a washer and dryer. When trouble worsens, Gaeta finds his dreams of a life with Joyce slipping away. Joyce, who can't move out of her traditional father's house until she is married, comes up with her own plan to make the marriage happen. But it won't be easy.

In this intimate and moving first novel, Michael Jaime- Becerra sheds light on the lives of working class Mexican-Americans in Southern California.