When Tia Dolores, the beloved aunt who has cared for the Montoya family since the death of their mother, announces that she is planning to leave, Josefina and her sisters try to find a way to change her mind.

Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tia Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

When the entire family goes into the hills to collect pinon nuts, Josefina hopes to find the most in order to make Tia Dolores proud of her.

"He went searching for the truth. Now a killer has found him. The more you know, the move there is to fear. Four years ago, fifteen-year-old Ellen Vicksburg went missing in the quiet town of River Remez, New Mexico. Ellen was kind, studious, and universally liked. Her younger brother, Ben, could imagine nothing worse than never knowing what happened to her, until, on the first anniversary of her death, he found her body in a shallow grave by the rivers...