Cozy in the lap of Doña Guadalupe, a young Villaseñor listens with rapt attention as his maternal grandmother recounts stories about living through the Mexican Revolution. His father, Juan Salvador, also shares memories of this challenging time. When Villaseñor grows older, he feels less attached to these stories and does not make time to hear them anymore. However, when he meets the woman of his dreams, he sees new value in the story of his ancestry since it can now be passed down to his own children. He decides to record “over two hundred hours of taped conversations” with his parents (v). Though Villaseñor’s family insists that all their stories are true, he thinks they may just be parables, so he travels to Mexico in search of his family’s truth. While there, he continues to balk at their stories because of God’s continued presence in them, which he feels makes the stories seem “foolish” (vi). As time goes on, however, he accepts the presence of God in his family’s lives and chronicles their existence in the following “true” narrative (vi).