Central Kansas Library System

When Victoria Cruz wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital after her failed suicide attempt, she still has no desire to live, but as the weeks pass, and she meets Dr. Desai and three of the other patients, she begins to reflect on the reasons why she feels like a loser compared with the rest of her family, and to see a path ahead where she can make a life of her own.

Junior and his family move from the barrio to a better part of El Paso in the 1950s, but they must live in the basement of their new house while they attempt to raise their standard of living.