The story opens in contemporary Miami, where a young Cuban woman has for years been searching in vain for details of her birth mother. All she knows is that her mother delivered her into the hands of her grandfather, who fled Havana for Los Angeles with baby in tow. The quest for her mother seems hopeless until a mysterious parcel containing writings and photographs arrives in the mail. Along with several trips back to Havana, the daughter fits the pieces together and reconstructs the life of her mother, her youthful affair with the enigmatic Che and the child she bore by the handsome rebel.