This is the fictional memoir of Mexican-born Guadalupe Magdalena Molina Vásquez-wife, scoundrel, courtesan, mother, and survivor. Living in a world where gender and class roles are unbending and religion predominant, Magda creates a philosophy of life that she can thrive on, one which embraces deeply felt gratitude, cynical optimism, and pragmatism. Invincible yet fallible, proud Magda climbs from the depths of poverty in the barrio to American affluence, from ambitious youth to humbling blindness.

Living in the prosperous neighborhood she once came to as a child to visit the shrine of the miracle baby Jesus, Magda performs her daily rituals and shares her life's lessons with her half-American daughter Martina, and Magda's little cousin Isabel. This is the story of women, their strengths, the power of their sex, and their secrets of survival.