A young couple ponders their opposing religions after one of them finds a cow's tongue left on their porch. A widow helps her neighbor mourn the death of his wife by burying the woman's belongings in the backyard. A mother forces her daughter to undergo various rituals to lighten her skin to find a good match. And when a man needs a son as his heir, he brings his new, much younger wife to live with his current wife and daughter, changing his daughter's life in ways she couldn't have imagined.

In stunning prose, Zambrano's stories traverse the delights and fears of parenthood in terrifying clarity, exploring the suppression and display of desire in women and girls in daring candor.