The book opens up with an introduction to the family bond that unites Carlos to his family and their land. His brother Leon, went off to fight in a war in Europe when Carlos was still a toddler. Now he is back. Luciano works at a native branch of the U.S Army. Amado helps his father on the farm and Macario is in high school. The family has one goal and every member plays their own part. With this notion, the author emphasizes the importance of family and land which predominate the rest of the novel.
After his return, Leon plows his father’s land as a sign of respect the sons have for their parents. Leon has also taken up the duty of raising Carlos to become a productive member of the family. Later in the novel, Carlos admits that his time with Leon taught him to endure unforgiving times later in his life.
Macario finishes school and lands a teaching job in America. Carlos decides to join him. However, from the moment he steps into the country, Carlos finds a different welcoming from the one he hoped for. He moves from one factory to the other, each one worse and unforgiving. Together with other Filipino workers, Carlos is mistreated, beaten, and demeaned by White people. Everywhere he goes, he is either chased away or beaten to a pulp. After traveling to different states searching for a safe haven, Carlos joins a group of Filipinos that fight for the rights of all Filipinos working and living in America.
Initially, Carlos fails to understand why white people are so obsessed with the issue of race. After joining the labor movement, Carlos learns that racism plays a major part in the country’s social and economic growth. Racism was meant to disgrace and dehumanize minority groups in the country hence affording white people the right to treat them as beasts of burden. Filipino workers were forced to work in intolerable conditions and paid with scraps from the white man’s pocket. Minority groups were only welcomed in the country as a form of cheap labor.
Over the course of his time in America, Carlos falls victim to state-sanctioned violence against minorities in the country. Carlos is distraught by how hard white people work to maintain dominance over others yet they still wave a flag of freedom. Liberty, and justice for everyone. As the book concludes, Carlos concludes that a lot of people live in America but are not part of the American society. Nevertheless, he has yet to lose hope in the country; he vows to reconcile American ideals with the reality of American life.
