Lizet Ramirez is the protagonist of the novel. She is a research scientist at the Rawlings college. At the beginning of the story, Lizet tells about her friend, Ariel Hernandez, who is the only survivor of an unfortunate raft from Cuba to America.
The story begins on Thanksgiving Day, narrated by the first person. Lizet and Ariel are both reached in Miami as Thanksgiving is about to come. The college life is not so easy for her. She has been struggling mentally and socially throughout her first year to get fit in the college life.
When Lizet returned to her home, her family's situation is more complex than college. Her parents lately broken their relationship, and Lizet's older sister Leidy is taking care of her newborn without getting any assistance from her defaulter ex-boyfriend.
Lizet returns to college without having seen her parents and her boyfriend, Omar. But Ariel is staying at her home in the Lizet's neighborhood, which becomes the focal point of rallies in support of shelter under the United States for Cuban refugees.
Lizet wants to resolve her college issue, so she working hard and pull her grades up. For the Christmas celebration, she returned home, where she finds her mother is supporting Ariel's family. One day Omar proposed Lizet with a ring, she accepts it. After that, they go out for clubbing and have sex that night. Omar tells Lizet to meet his mother before she went to college. Omar does not have any concerns for Cuban refugees. Lizet attends a rally, where she finds many Cuban-American people whom she knows. She understands their struggle and pain.
Lizet returns college and enjoys study, new lab class, which is taught by the teacher, Dr. Kaufmann. One day, she walks into the dorm and saw her mother's interview upon a news channel on the Television. She feels annoyed because of her mother's doing. Lizet gets good marks in her examination. The professor recognizes ability in her and offered her for an internship. She accepts the internship, and when she visits Miami, Lizet feels awkward because she finds herself stranger there. So she decided to return to Rawlings. Lizet professor asks her, why she didn't take the internship, Lizet tells him that, she wants to spend her time with her family.
In the end, Lizet talked to her mother about her future and studies. Her mother says to Lizet that she can choose herself, so she asked her professor for the internship, and halfhearted left her home.
