Lily Bard started over in the sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, where she works as a cleaning lady. But she's about to go back to where she came from--and where Lily goes, danger follows. . . Determined to move beyond her violent past, Lily heads to her hometown of Bartley for her estranged sister's Christmas Eve wedding. But there is something in the air besides holiday cheer--murder. The town's doctor and nurse have been bludgeoned to death--and...

Oscar Hijuelos vividly brings to life the joys, desires, and disappointment of American life witnessed through the experience of a formerly prosperous Cuban émigré named Lydia Espana—now a cleaning woman in New York. In magnetic prose, he juxtaposes Lydia's tale with the stories of her clients, contrasting her experiences with the secret lives of those for whom she works.