After Santiago is kicked out of his unloving aunt's home in Mexico, he meets young mother Maria Dolores and her small daughter, Alegria. The little girl immediately takes to Santiago and Maria Dolores is too kind to leave Santiago to fend for himself. She invites him to join them on their journey to El Norte. They find a coyote to take them across the border from Mexico into the United States, but greed and power dynamics among the coyotes leads to a violent attack, and the three end up stranded in the desert. They're in desperate condition when a U.S. immigration patrol picks them up. Maria Dolores is hospitalized, and Santiago and Alegria are separated at a youth detention center. Over the next six months, Santiago's sadness at losing the first people who truly felt like family turns to despair at believing they've deserted him after he discovers Alegria has been released. He makes a few friends during that time, and is singled out for his bright mind by an educator who teaches him to read. Still, living conditions are bleak and there are incidents of abuse and humiliation by the guards and bullying by some older boys. This wrenching look at the desperate conditions-physical, emotional, psychological-inside an immigrant detention center ends with relief and happiness for Santiago, but makes clear not every child there is as fortunate or resilient as he is. (Ages 9-12)