Summary
The novel is written as a series of interviews between Cara Romano and an unnamed social worker at the Senior Workforce Program. In these interviews, Cara reveals a great deal about herself and her past. In the first interview, she talks about leaving the Dominican Republic to escape her husband. She says that he was going to kill her because of her infidelity. The night he finds out about her affair, he goes to the other man's house at night and cuts off his leg with a machete. She takes her young son Fernando and they flee to her mother's house. In the present, she then talks about people who live in her building and her desire to find a job.
In the next session, she describes an instance from her son's childhood in which he claimed she hit him, saying that he merely bumped his head against the door, but that the school still sent people to inspect her home. She goes on to say that after she moved to New York, her brother, Rafa, and sister, Ángela, came to live with her. She also talks about her friend Lulu who she thinks spends too much time doting on her son, Adonis. She says Adonis is a banker who went to a prestigious college.
After this, Cara talks about searching for her son after he left the house and says that Lulu is continuing to have issues with Adonis. She adds that while she was looking for Fernando, her brother-in-law, Hernán, gave him the address of a place where he was likely staying. She travels to this address and meets Fernando's roommate, Alexis, who she believes he is dating. She leaves a meal with Alexis and does not hear from Fernando. At the end of the chapter, it is revealed that Cara is behind on her rent.
Cara says that a building manager came by the other day and that she might be in trouble. She also talks about her neighbor Tita and her mentally ill daughter Cecilia, who she manages to calm in a tense moment. She takes a quiz designating her work skills and ends up not going to an interview for a housekeeping job, as it is too far away to commute to. She recounts her affair with a married man named José.
Cara tells the interviewer that a psychic she has been writing to has given her good news about her future. She then talks about how she was concerned by the way that her sister Ángela let her niece Yadrisela talk to a stranger on the street. Later that week, she follows Yadrisela home to make sure that man didn't bother her. Yadrisela is fine, but a young Dominican girl disappears around the same time, making Cara feel that she made the right decision. She goes on to say that she once found Fernando doing work in an apartment building.
In the following interview, she talks about babysitting for her sister, Ángela. She says that one day her nephew Julio was so rude to her that she grabbed him and yelled at him. This makes Ángela so angry that she screams at Cara and compares her to their mother. She tells Cara that she will never watch her children again, wounding her. Cara then tells the interviewer about how, when she ran away from her husband and tried to stay with her mother, her mother wouldn't let her come in and said maybe she deserved to be killed. Ángela eventually let her in, and their mother beat her for it.
She then says that the day Fernando left it was because he was being nasty to her and attempted to walk out the door. She says that she threw the iron she was holding at him and it hit his face, making him bleed. In the next session, she talks about her marriage to Ricardo and how he became cruel and violent after she suffered two miscarriages. She becomes emotional talking about these things and decides to make up with Ángela.
Cara's elderly neighbor La Vieja Caridad passes away and leaves Cara money in her will. In a document at the end of the last chapter, the interviewer—whose name is revealed to be Lissette—makes a strong recommendation that Cara's unemployment benefits be extended as she sees her as a kind, creative, and hardworking person. Cara returns to the office one final time and tells Lissette that her son left some food at her doorstep with a heartfelt note. Cara says these conversations have really helped her and that Lissette should write down that she is still here, whole.
