Arturo and Alma Rivera are two Mexicans that cross the border over into the United States, bringing their daughter, Maribel. The couple wants to bring Maribel to Newark, New Jersey because she has suffered traumatic injury, leaving her emotionless and with many physical and mental problems. The couple want to send her to a school called Evers, which is for the cognitively impaired. To pay for tuition, Arturo gets a job at a mushroom farm, and Alma stays at home, desperately homesick.
The book skips to another group of Americans, this time the Toro family. The youngest Toro son is named Mayor. Unable to live up to what his father wants him to be, Mayor is just an average boy. Mayor falls in love with Maribel, but not without pain and hardship. A group of bullies taunts him for loving a "ritarded" girl, and Mayor is heartbroken. Mayor's father, Rafael, also says that he should not associate with her.
Garrett, the school bully, is caught one day by Alma while he is harrassing Maribel. Garrett has slammed Maribel against the wall, pulled up her shirt, and harrassed her. Quickly, Alma scares him away and wonders what the world has come to. She loves her daughter very much, but doesn't know how to help her.
Alma reports Garrett to the police, but it is of no use because no one has committed a crime. Arturo loses his job at the mushroom farm, and the couple becomes very worried that they will not be able to stay afloat financially. Rafael, on the other hand, gets a lump sum of cash from his daughter in Panama, and gets a job as a newspaper carrier.
After a long chain of events, Arturo dies. Alma and Maribel are forced to drive back to Mexico, both because they want to and they have to. During the car ride, Maribel says she feels sick and throws up. Alma comes to the realization that Maribel was who she was before the accident after all, and recalls that Arturo once told her that everything is beautiful if you give it a chance.
