What is legitimized and normalized by the discrimination and institutionalized violence the de la Cruz family is forced to face? Miguelito might survive in his new adopted country, but at what price?

The novel opens with the death of Manuel de la Cruz who is wasting away from dementia. He once was a henchman for the brutal Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As he lays dying, he becomes lucid enough during the last minutes of life to be haunted not just by the spirits of his victims, but also by the orisha deity Ogg