When Esperanza and Mama are forced to flee towards the bountiful region of Aguascalientes, Mexico, to a Mexican farm labor camp in California, they need to adjust to a existence without fancy dresses and servants these were accustomed to in Rancho de las Rosas. Today they must confront the problems of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties due to the Great Melancholy. When Mama falls sick and a strike for better operating circumstances threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must relinquish her hang on days gone by and figure out how to embrace another ripe with the riches of family members and community.