The memoir begins with a life-altering event: Guerrero coming home from school at the age of 14 to find her parents gone. The threat of deportation was a long-standing fear in her household. She cites sobering statistics about undocumented immigrants: 11 million live and work in the US; on average, 17 children end up in state care every day after ICE detains their parents. Guerrero describes the shame she felt growing up with undocumented parents. She claims she would have coped better had she known it was possible to survive the experience. Her desire to help others motivates her to write her memoir. Her overarching goals are to inform readers, provide hope, and put a human face on immigration debates.

Chapter 1 opens in the Roxbury section of Boston in Spring 2001. Guerrero is impatient to get to BAA, where she is performing a solo at the upcoming Springfest. Her mother insists she eat breakfast before school, but Guerrero rudely refuses. She ponders her family’s changing fortunes as she walks to the train. Her father recently won thousands of dollars in the lottery, while Erica, her beloved niece, is once again staying with them.