Four Cuban immigrants in the steamy cauldron of Ybor City confront their racism through the Great Depression, labor unrest, World War II, and the Castro Revolution: Pablo the white, high-born opportunist who becomes wealthy as a war profiteer; Consuelo, his suffering wife who has a distant slave ancestor; Matilde, the brilliant but ill-fated, mixed-race idealist; and his exotically beautiful wife Zoraida, the driving, fanatical communist and Santeria adept. These characters interact in the multiethnic community that grew around the cigar industry. At the time, Ybor City was one of the few towns in America where they could have interacted as equals. It was indeed a rich pot of cafe con leche.